


This Love thing

by blahblahwahwah



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon Rewrite, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Love Triangles, Unrequited Love, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-03
Updated: 2016-01-28
Packaged: 2018-05-11 12:18:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5626291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blahblahwahwah/pseuds/blahblahwahwah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity became Tommy's designated BFF after the Queen's Gambit sank. She's secretly harboring strong feelings for a man who clearly loves Laurel. Enter the old BFF named Oliver who isn't so dead, after all - who also clearly loves Laurel.<br/>So - what is the thing Felicity and Oliver feel for each other?</p><p>On hiatus till season 5 is done.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. You seep under my skin, and I can't get you out.

**Author's Note:**

> Alternate universe where Felicity knows Tommy from before Oliver's back.  
> Thank you to the brilliant [victoriaOlicity](http://archiveofourown.org/users/victoriaOlicity%20) for this pretty poster. ([Twitter](https://twitter.com/victori96572376))  
> 

Tommy Merlyn's new friend is a dick.

Check that.

Tommy Merlyn's new _old_ friend is a dick.

"Technically," Felicity garbles the words, as she slurps her Long ( _really_ long) Island ice tea. "He'ssh an old friend. Y'know like a - besties for life, bum chums, wingman, brotha' from anotha' motha' type - friend who was basically dead for five years and then he's back to life."

Her audience of one, a very handsome well-built man, wearing a well fitting store-bought suit, which complemented chocolate skin and a kind Yoda-like demeanour looks confused.

And, she isn't sure if it's just because of the verbal diarrhoea that has overcome her or the loud thumping of the base reverberating of the entire hall in this stupid club but her entire body is buzzing rhythmically.

"Not like a zombie or like vampire back to life thing. But...." She slurs. "Sort of like was presumed dead and then returned from the dead thing...y'know."

_(Boom boom boom thump thump!_ At some point her heart's keeping time with the beat.)

She huffs and continues. "The point is Tommy's new _old_ friend is a dick!" Though her blurry, alcohol numbed eyes, Felicity sees her companion's confusion turn to amusement.

"Yeah yeah..." She says. "I know whatchya thinkin'. 'She's jealous of the new _old_ friend'. 'Cause I was the wingman. Well, not really wing _man_ , I think the correct term is wingwoman. but semantics y'know...?"

The man shakes his head indicate that he _doesn't_ know.

"No? You don't? Anyway - So. I'm totally...not! Jealous, I mean. It's just that he's kinda like Tommy's new boyfriend - not that Tommy's gay but if he was, I would have totally understood, but since he's not like - gay it's sort of annoying.  It's like - he's back from the dead and it's all... _'who's Felicity?_ ' Y'know what I mean right?"

"No." The man shakes his head, and said. "I really don't."

"Hmm." Felicity hums and pauses, narrowing her eyes in contemplation. "Y'know.... Tommy's life is like this soap opera? He loses this old friend in this boat accident. Then, he's just being a good guy to the said old best friend's old girlfriend and next thing ya know he makes the one cardinal mistake of the bro-code. He falls in love with her. And now...I'm sure he's sort of dating her, _without_ dating her. Is that even possible? To be someone's not-boyfriend?"

"I believe the term is called friends with benefits." The man remarks.

"Yeah well - I dunno who's really the beneficiary here." She says, all in one breath. "I mean, you have a man who pines for this woman who pines for a dead guy and so they do the whole benefits thing - except pining man is also sort of bro-pining for this dead guy."

She can totally make out the confusion on the man's face, despite the smoke and blue lights that are flashing.

"His not-girlfriend is kinda still hung up on the old best friend - y'know the guy who was supposed to be dead but isn't and it's all..." She huffs, waving her hand exaggeratedly to convey how messed up it all is. "And then there's the old bestie's sister, whom I'm a hundred percent sure is in looove with Tommy but he's too blind to notice and let's face it - she's jailbait - the sister I mean." Felicity sighs. "Tommy dotes on her so - by default, I dote on her. So the bestie's back and Tommy's like a goddman teenager and he's all like..."

Felicity thinks she's faking Tommy's voice except what comes out of her throat is this high pitched squeaky version of: " _...oh man, my bro's back and it's like the best thing and I'm like totally reliving my tweens again!_ "

She loses her breath trying to imitate him and then goes back to her normal voice. "- and I don't really like the influence that dude has on Tommy. I mean people wanna kill him or kidnap him because he's who he is and Tommy wants to hang with him all the time, so that guy nearly got Tommy killed. Okay - I guess that guy came along at the right time - else- I'd be drinking at a wake right now." She exhales.  "Oh my god! The drama! Waaaay too much drama. Like Desperate Housewives - technically - it's like Desperate Rich Boys in his case, but y'know it's all..." She frustratedly snaps her fingers, searching for the words.

"Semantics?" The man offered, politely.

"Yeah!" She slurps her drink and grins happily, patting her listener's arm. "That's right!  Semantics. He might have the whole broody-reformed-party boy thing going for him. I mean, when he was back, Tommy was so thrilled, and I was like - really super thrilled because Tommy was thrilled. But now..." She makes a face. "I'm not so thrilled."

He mums his lips and nods, looking about for -

(she's not entirely sure, but she's about ten percent certain he's looking for an escape...)

Wait - why was she here, again?

"Are you alone?" She says, squinting at her companion, when he looks at his watch. "Are you like waiting for someone? Not that I'm hitting on you - I mean, you're a very nice looking man - and I'd totally hit on you, but you're totally channelling the Yoda thing...and I don't think I could really hit on a Yoda."

"Yoda?" 

"Star Wars - green short old guy..."

"I know who Yoda is, Miss Smoak. I'm just surprised I remind you of Yoda."

"What's so surprising about it?"

"Well - I haven't really gotten a chance to give you any advice or life guidance yet, have I?" He gives her a meaningful look.

"Oh." Felicity says, feeling awkward. "I guess I'm doing the babbling thing, again?"

"As opposed to what you've been doing all of the last hour?"

"Yeah." Felicity sighs and then chuckles awkwardly. "Sorry. Mister...?"

"Diggle. John Diggle. Nice to meet you Miss Smoak."

"How'd you know my name?"

"You told me."

"Really?"

"Yeah - you um - said: Hi! I'm Felicity Smoak and Tommy Merlyn's new friend is a dick!"

"Oh." She said, feeling foolish. She grabs the drink that Mike hands her and nods affirmatively. "Well he is!" She announces, resolutely.

He smiles. "I'm  - I'm waiting on my boss." He says.

"Oh? Why?"

"He's up there -" The man points to the VIP lounge. Felicity rolls her eyes, because she knows Tommy's there so that means Mr. Diggle's boss is a...

"A card carrying member of the 'Spoilt-rich-bad-boys' club, huh?" She says.

"Guess so!" He smiles. "But - I should tell you, I already knew who you were."

"You do?" Felicity says, surprised. She straightens up, feeling awkward.

"You're that computer genius. SmoakScreen Cyber?" He said. "Youngest self-made millionnaire in Starling under thirty?"

"For the record," Felicity says, leaning over and whispering. "I wasn't a big fan of _that_ name. To many Sssss. Technically Cyber's a 'C' but it sounds like and S."

"Really?"

"Yeah!" She waves her hand dismissively. "I just wanted to call it....Hmm...I dunno what I wanted to call it." She frowns. "Nope - yep! I remember - I wanted to call it 'Bubbles'."

"Bubbles?"

"Yeah, it's catchy! And small! Like 'Google' or 'Yahoo' - y'know - but my CTO came up with SmoakScreen Cyber and I'm not sure why it got all the votes."

"I can't imagine why it isn't called 'Bubbles.'" He says. Felicity can detect the overt sarcasm there, but is too caught up in the groove around her to care.

"So, when did you meet Tommy Merlyn?" He says, after a small while.

"Four years ago..." She answers, immediately. "He - he was a different guy then."

"In a good way or a bad way?"

"I -" Felicity frowns and shakes her head. "In a different way?" She offers as an explanation.

He nods - accepting it.

_(Boom boom boom thump thump!)_

 

She didn't meet Tommy - she actually crashed into him.

Literally.

Like  - _Wham!_ Right into a lean muscled Armani slim-fit suited wall that was Tommy Merlyn.

She had been rushing into Merlyn Global's legal department with the requisite documents for renting out two of their floors. It was an explosion of papers and clatter of other stuff - and he bent down to help her pick it up and walked her all the way towards Legal. He was smooth - to say in the least. All adorable eyes and adorable face and adorable chatter - and next thing Felicity knew she had a crush.

From her calculations, it was about a year after the Queen's Gambit sank. She'd been wary of him at first - given his notoriety with women and rumours about less-than-respectable recreational habits. As it is with great friendships, she didn't remember when Tommy and her began to hangout, how they progressed from friendly acquaintances to buddies to confidantes to - "Felicity's my best friend."

(That's how  Tommy actually introduced her to Gorgeous Laurel B-T-W.)

So...He started it.

"Really?" Felicity ended up blurting in-front of Laurel. "I didn't think people did 'best' friends anymore. People say it's for cheesy twelve-year-olds. I'm sure the socially acceptable term is BFF. Well - technically BFF expands to Best friends forever but..."

Laurel gave her a wide eyed stare as she rambled - which when Felicity thought about it, wasn't a good sign. Tommy gave her a curious look. It wasn't the one he gave when her mouth usually ran off; it was the one he gave her when she said something he found improbable.

Like there was no other friend Felicity could be but his 'best' one.  

"Tommy's really happy around you!" Laurel would remark later, when Tommy excused himself for a phone call. "I'm glad to see that! He hasn't been happy in a while."

Felicity felt super fuzzy inside when she said it.

(Also - she totally called it. ) "Ohmigod, Gorgeous Laurel?" Felicity exclaimed, once Laurel left.

"Stop calling her Gorgeous Laurel."

"Tommy, she's totally gorgeous."

He blushed and averted his eyes. Felicity felt a little flutter inside that felt like envy.

"Yeah, she is." He agreed, softly.

"And - you're totally in love with her." Felicity, gave a lopsided matter-of-fact smile. When he opened his mouth to protest, she cut him off. "Don't even think of contradicting me, mister! C'mon! Anyone with eyes can see the way you look at her and - I've noticed your voice goes all breathy when you say her name and your face goes all blushy whenever we've talked about her."

He sputtered up some silly excuses about how him and Laurel were just good friends and had known each other a while. Felicity did her trademark side-ways head-tilt and point-blank stare whenever she knew someone was trying to lie to her. A few minutes of utter bull-crap later, Tommy gave in with a resigned drop of his shoulders and a sheepish look.

"Yeah - okay." He said, softly. (Felicity felt her heart skip a beat when he said it like that.)

She wiggled her eyebrows at him and gave him her 'Aha!' look.

"Is it really that cheesy to call you my best friend?" He said, with a goofy smile.

The adorable vibes were totally doing it for him, she was thinking and then she realized that he looked forlorn.

In the almost year, since Felicity had known him she had pinpointed only one thought that would ever make him look _so_ dejected.

Oliver Queen.

"Tell you what?" She said. "Let's hit that club, tonight - you can mope all about Gorgeous Laurel - and then I'll be your wingman, help you pick up the _chicas._ "

 

The stories of Gorgeous Laurel always started with Oliver Queen and ended with a longing look and a hesitant but quick change of topic.

That night - there was no change in the topic.

She'd heard all about Oliver Queen, sure. She'd known that him and Tommy were friends, of course. (She and everyone who read Page 6.) Queens and Merlyns were among the unapproachable one-percenters. Felicity never imagined she'd ever meet either. She even followed their antics on social media while she was at school. She might have even fantasized about the Oliver Queen a little because - _that face with that smile and those eyes!_ As it was with all normal commonfolk, Felicity assumed she'd never cross paths with him - and when he died (supposedly), she consoled her then roommate who was moping over the death of number four on her will-sleep-with-at-any-time list but didn't spare him much thought afterwards.

But she didn't know the Oliver Queen that Tommy knew.

Felicity's heart broke for him when she realized that Tommy lost a brother on the Queen's Gambit. She didn't really think it was appropriate to be a wingman to pick up the _chicas_ while he wept ( - as in veritable tears with sobs -) over the loss of his best friend, so she took him back to her place.

He slept on her dilapidated futon in her then shitty apartment, the first sleepover of many. He grew so attached to that ridiculous futon that when she finally had enough money to move to a new place, he adamantly refused to let her get rid of it. She begrudgingly agreed and tolerated the sight of it for about a month. When she protested about it being an eyesore, he actually had a new wooden frame made for it, spending an amount that was worth _at least_ five times the original cost of the lumpy mattress that she'd bought at a yard sale.

Felicity suddenly has the feels when she thinks of the futon.

 

_(Boom boom boom thump thump!)_

The music goes on and on _._ Felicity's feeling weepy and a bit out of it.

"So - why are you waiting on your boss?" She says, trying to distract herself more than anything. "You haven't taken a drink outside that sparkling water!"

"Yeah - I'm on the job."

"On the job?"

"Yes."

"What job? Are you the assistant?"

"Bodyguard -slash - driver."

"Ooh! You totally look the part." She says and adds, hurriedly, "The bodyguard part I mean - the driver thing... _meh!_ " She shrugs.

He smiles at her. "Yeah, my boss is kind of a dick too." He winks. (Felicity's about thirty percent certain that he's trying to imply something, but Felicity's either too drunk or too stupid to process it.)

"Yeah? Why?"

"He keeps disappearing on me. Makes it kinda hard to protect him."

"That's the worst, right?" She makes a face, feeling woozy and indignant at the same time. "When people don't let you do the job they assigned you to do? Like my job as Tommy's best friend - it is tiring. I mean, the guy's in love with trouble - not that Laurel is mean, oh no- Laurel's super nice but it's all so complicated. And you have the dead best friend return to the land of the living in the most _un_ cool way!"

"What's a cool way to return from the dead?"

"Vampire!" Felicity announces, slamming her fist on the table. Mr. Diggle doesn't seem as convinced, as much as he is humored. "or - " Felicity thinks about it and yells, "Cyborg! Maybe a Zombie?"

Mr. Diggle stars to laugh. "I like you Ms. Smoak." He says, between chuckles.

"Yeah - I'm a good boss, y'know Mr. Diggle. You should come work for me. There was like this web survey and they voted me the best boss." She puffs up with pride.

"Do you need a bodyguard, Ms. Smoak?"

"D'you think if I have a bodyguard, people would take me seriously?

"Depends." He chuckles. "Why aren't you up there in the VIP lounge with the spoilt-rich?"

Felicity tries to remember but her brain is far too fuzzed out. "I'm...uh...I dunno - I don't belong there, I guess."

"You're rich and you have rich friends, right?"

"I prefer the term, 'financially secure' -" She stresses on the words. "And I think self-made millionaires shouldn't waste money in a V.I.P. lounge or they'll be self-unmade."

"Or..."

"Or?"

"Or I think you feel left out."

"That's ridiculous - why would I feel left out? Tommy's there. Gorgeous Laurel's there. Tommy's best friend is there. Everybody who's anybody's there."

"Except you?"

"Except me." She admits.

"I'm guessing the best friend's name is Oliver Queen?"

"Yeah - how'd you figure?"

He gives her an incredulous look and snorts. "Educated guess?"

She begins to snigger. She has no idea why but the only thing she wants to do is laugh. Maybe she's laughing at her plight. Here she is in this stupid noisy club - waiting for Tommy to remember he'd invited her but forgot to put her on the entry list to the VIP lounge. She hates the ambience because the smoke makes her eyes water, she hates the music which is obviously not helping with her headache, and she's only here because Tommy asked her to come.

She also isn't a big fan of drinking her woes because that's Tommy's thing and her job is basically to rub his shoulder and listen to him - but...

"Oh - um..." She realizes her drinks is finished and then taps on the glass.

"Haven't you drunk enough?" Mr. Diggle says, while she waves to get the bartender's attention.

"Oh no, I've drunk too much, sir." Felicity says, feeling woozy. "But I'm done with men for one lifetime, so I've decided to drown my man-pain in...Yo! Mike!" She suddenly yells when the bartender turns towards her. "I'm ready for some Sex on the Beach!"

A host of people lounging at the bar turn and look at her. Mike looks horrified. Felicity gurgles out an embarrassed laugh. "I mean - not Sex on the Beach with you - but - y'know what I mean? Sex on the Beach - like the drink - y'know like...vodka, peach schnapps..." Once, people start turning away, whispering and sniggering, she ducks her head and mumbles. "And...I dunno - maybe a cone of shame?"

She sneaks a glance at her new friend who's looking at her pitifully.  "I don't really drink...too much." She confesses.

He gives her a knowing smile.

_(Boom boom boom thump thump!)_

 

 

Oliver Queen had been  a _thing_ that loomed over their lives even though Felicity never knew him. If ever Laurel, Tommy and her hung out, and they had more than a little to drink, even though Oliver's name was never said, Felicity always felt his spectre thick in the unspoken words that Tommy and Laurel shared while they talked about 'the old times'.

When the news broke of Oliver Queen's rescue, she surprised herself by not following the stories. Four years ago, she would have hogged her computer and phone, reading every snippet, every rumor, every tidbit of gossip on every social medial platform that enabled alerts - but four years ago, she didn't know Tommy Merlyn. Knowing Tommy Merlyn, she knew _of_ the Oliver Queen that Tommy Merlyn loved.

It felt too personal.

Tommy stumbled onto her doorstep, about four days before Oliver Queen's arrival stateside, before the media picked it up. It was sunset and the orange light filtering through the windows gave his glassy eyes an almost amber hue. He was pale, his voice was heavy and breathing sounded ragged.

"He's alive." He whispered. "Felicity, he survived!"

(When Felicity was six, her father walked out on her and her mother. She always wondered how she'd react if he came back into her life. She understood in that moment the overwhelming feelings Tommy might have had.)

"I uh - I don't know....what I'm supposed to feel." He said, after he explained to her that Oliver was in fact _not_ as dead as they thought, and then sank into the futon (- _his_ futon _, their_  futon.)

Felicity went besides him and took him into her arms. "Tommy," she whispered and waited for him to turn to meet her eyes. When he did, she hugged him first, drawing back she caught his face and she smiled encouragingly at him, through her own unshed tears. "This is a good thing." She said. "Tommy..." She stressed when he looked unconvinced. "This is wonderful."

He nodded, leaned his head on her shoulder and said nothing more. They curled up together on the futon and fell asleep.

 

"How was he?" She would ask him over the phone, when he called her the day after Oliver Queen arrived in Starling City.

_"He's...different, but -  Felicity!"_ She could hear the excitement in his voice. _"He's here!"_

"I'm happy for you, Tommy." She said, feeling tears slip down her cheeks, relieved that he couldn't see it, or he'd never let her live it down. She was honestly delighted. Tommy promised her, he'd introduce them as soon as Oliver was ready. She happily gave Tommy all the time and space needed to hog his friend.

It was the least she could do for a man who meant so much to man who meant so much to her.

_(Boom boom boom thump thump! )_

Felicity's phone begins to buzz in her clutch. When she looks at her drink she realizes she's done with that too. Felicity reaches for it, and reaches for her glasses as well. She holds her glasses up against the phone and peers through it and curses.

"Mr. Diggle." Felicity says, with an exasperated huff. "One of my server rooms caught on fire and I have to get there - like pronto - and..." She makes to stand up and slaps her palm against the bar table when the world spins.

The amusement on his face switches to concern."Miss Smoak?"

"Felicity." She whispers (she reckons, it's time they're on a first name basis now).

"Can I call you a cab, Felicity?"

"Nah - Noooo!" She says, feeling light headed and more cheerful. "Oh maybe you should. It's not like I can depend on my designated driver." She jabs a finger towards the V.I.P. lounge. "And to answer your question - I'm here because Tommy invited me but didn't bother to put me on the V.I.P. list - and - went before me - and he's not picking his phone and -"

"He forgot about you." Mr. Diggle says, in a soft, understanding voice.

"Well - yeah - but - no! Nah! I'm not mean like that - Tommy's not my property - it's just...the whole thing this dude has with Tommy's gorgeous not-girlfriend..." Felicity pouts. "I dunno - I mean...when he started _not-_ dating Laurel..." Felicity makes a very serious face. "I wasn't for it. I was like - look the only relationship apparently Laurel can have is with the best friend of the supposedly dead love of her life...who B-T-W -"

Mr. Diggle looks at a point beyond Felicity's shoulder and his smile fades a little and he straightens up.

"God knows, he's like..." She ignores his reaction and continues, making wide-eyed faces when the image of Oliver Queen comes up in her mind. "Like...super hot...Yeah - like..." She fans herself, emphatically. "Woah! Like Christian Gray - hot like - brooding, millionaire, stoic -  fifty shades of sex! Y'know what I'm sayin'?"

He looks at her with a deadpan expression, his glance skitting across her shoulder. She leans her head back and sighs.

"Ah! You think I've got the hots for the hottie - oh nooo! I do - I mean I did - like for ten seconds when he sort of...whatever!"

Mr. Diggle's face is completely blank and expressionless now. His eyes are fixed beyond her and she's far too drunk to turn her head.

"But the point is..." She takes a deep breath and shouts it out. "Oliver Queen's a _dick!_ "

The sound of someone clearing their throat behind her has her wheeling around...and...

_Oh Frrrack!_

"Oliver." Felicity blurts when she finds Oliver Queen standing there. His jaw is set - the corners of his mouth a tilting up in an amused smile and he's looking at her with all that intensity that her has her knees turn to jelly.

"Felicity." He says, nodding at her, clenching his jaw. She's pretty sure he heard what she said, but pretends like she doesn't know. She just plasters a wide smile on her face and looks at him expectantly until he speaks.

(Maybe he didn't hear all of it?)

_(Boom boom boom thump thump!)_

 

Interestingly, the first time she actually met her best friend's not-dead best friend was in the absence of said best friend. Oliver Queen just sauntered into _her_ office while she had her head buried in the expense audits.

_(Oliver might come by._ Tommy texted her earlier. _He said something about needing help with his laptop and keeping it private. Help him out? For me?_

_Do you know it's about?_ She texted back.

_Nope._ He replied back instantly. _It's Oliver.)_

Felicity didn't think much of it until...

"Felicity Smoak?"

She'd been chewing on a pen trying to get rid of the frustration she felt because she hated reading through audits. So, she pretty much summed up her state of mind with a : "Huh?"

Now, Felicity's not exactly a together person, so - she just gaped at the marvellous face of Oliver Queen who managed to look a casual t-shirt and jeans look sexy. The photographs didn't do him justice, but she sort of always expected that.

"Hi! I'm Oliver Queen." He says.

"Uh-Of course!" The words are out of her mouth before she can control it. "I know who you are. You're Mr. Queen." She raises her eyebrows in admiration.

"Noooo!" He drawled. "Mr. Queen was my father."

"Right." She said, without thinking. "But he’s dead -"

_Holy frack!_ Did she just -?

She hastily shook her head. "I mean, he drowned."  _Stop now, Felicity!_ "And you didn’t." _Really! is it possible for this brain to not have control on my mouth?_ "Which means you can come down to my office and..." She started to tap the pen, forcing her mind to switch the off button on her mouth. "Listen to me... _babble."_ The pen-tapping was helping. "Which will end in 3… 2… 1…"

The corners of his mouth turned up. His eyes looked playful. "I’m having some trouble with my computer and Mr. Merlyn - Tommy told me you were the person to come and see."

She extended her hand for the laptop and... _Oh. My. Were those bullet holes?_

"I was at my coffee shop surfing the web and I spilt a latte on it." He said, when he saw her eyeing the extent of damage on the laptop.

"Really?" She said, stretching the corners of her mouth down, feigning an innocent query.

"Yeah."

She looked up at him. He smirked - even his friggin' smirk was charming.

She raised her eyebrows. "'Cause these?" She fingered the laptop. "Look like bullet holes.

He nodded and answered with a deadpan expression. "My coffee shop is in a bad neighbourhood."

She tilted her head and gave him a look.

He raised his eyebrows and threw her a close-lipped smile. "If there is anything you can salvage from it," he said. "It would really be appreciated."

She should tell him to go take a hike. Felicity kept looking at him with disbelief, instead.

"Look, I'd have gone to someone at QC's IT but..." He added. "Tommy said if I needed discretion, you were the one to go to." He added. Felicity could detect the plea in his voice. "I'd appreciate if we could keep this between ourselves."

_(Boom boom boom, thump thump)_

"Dick, at your service." He says.

(So maybe he did hear it. Oh well! Sink or swim, right?)

Calling your best friend's old best friend a dick, is probably not a good thing for the old best friend to hear from the new best friend because it doesn't really look good for the actual best friend by virtue of association.

His eyebrows cross. He looks confused.

"I just..." The corners of Felicity's go down in an 'oh-holy-frack' frown. "I just said that out loud, didn't I?" She said.

He raised an eyebrow. She looked towards Mr. Diggle who nodded at her with pitiful look.

"I didn't mean _dick_  dick," She says, sheepishly. "I meant like a dick dick. Like a little dick - not that your dick is little. I mean, I'm pretty sure it's big, it's just... " (Once the words are out of her mouth, Felicity realizes the control mechanism in her brain is off on a break.) "...in fact, I've heard it's pretty big, not that I was interested in knowing but, someone told me - and not pretty big as in enhanced but..."  _What, what what is coming out of her mouth?_ Felicity freezes mid-sentence.

Mr. Diggle coughs.

Why doesn't this club have an on-demand hole-in-the-ground that could swallow her just then?

_Hmm..._ maybe she should develop software for that.

Oliver is clearly amused because he just _looks_ at her. She stares dumbly back with her jaw hanging open.

Oliver cleared his throat, appearing serious. "Tommy spotted you and he sent me to fetch you..."

Fetch her? Like what? Was she an errand or something? Was she _fetchable_ now?

"I do not _need_ to be fetched." She says, feeling angry, feeling a whole wave of rebellion within her. "I am leaving."

He frowns. "But..." He starts to say.

"Yeah - tell Tommy." She sighs. "My servers caught fire. Have to go..." She can't find the rest of the words-

 - and why is Oliver looking at her like that?

"You can't go like this." His eyes change - from scrutinizing to...is that concern?

"Yeah well - you can also tell Tommy," She says, feeling resentful of both Tommy and not-dead guy. " _That_ some of us who just sit around partying and trying to steal friends and girlfriends, while the millions just fall into their laps, like the floozies..." She says. "The rest of us make our millions by actually _making_ it."

He doesn't seem too perturbed by the insult. Felicity gives him a smug smile and he - whatthefrack - he actually returns it, raising his eyebrows.

"Mister Diggle." He says, looking beyond her.

"Oh of course!" She mutters just as Mr. Diggle responds. Oliver's eyes meet hers in a query. "Like - yeah of course! He works for you!" She laments, waving her arms towards Mr. Diggle. "I pour out my repressed hatred for you and all you represent, Oliver Queen, to a nice, patient - potential friend - and he _works_ for you!"

Oliver's eyes go wide and his jaw drops, slightly. He looks confused (and Felicity thinks it's cute and adorable - and maybe a little irresistable but...)

"You hate me?" He says, his voice soft - almost drowned out by the cacophony of the club.

Frack! He kinda looks like she killed his puppy - or kitten (if he was a cat person.)

"Are you a cat person?" She blurts. His expression changes to a mix of horror and confusion.

Grreat! Now, she feels like crap!

"Technically, I think you're a dick." She says, not sure if what she's saying now is really an amendment. "But only in principle."

"In principle?" He echoes.

"Yes."

"I don't understand -" He shakes his head. "Did I offend you in anyway?"

Did he offend her? Oliver Queen was pure charm, wasn't he?

"Tommy might trust you." Felicity says, without really thinking over her words. "But I don't."

"Is this about the laptop?" He said.

The laptop? She frowned. Right, the first time they met.

Hell yeah, Oliver was pure charm.

 

_(Boom boom boom thump thump!)_

 

It wasn't the laptop. Or the massive corporate espionage shit she found on it. Or the UNIDAC blueprints. She made it clear she didn't want to get in the midst of his Hamlet-drama thing but...

...No - that wasn't why she didn't trust him.

Felicity had just exited a meeting with the marketing manager of Max's club when she saw them as they walked in. The minute she did, she could also almost picture them in the old days - two young, hot guys out on the prowl. Every girl wanting to sleep with them and every guy wanting to be them.

Oliver Queen looked impossibly handsome that night. With his grey suit and white shirt with the top button open. Though he seemed casual and cocky Felicity could see the predatorial look in his eyes - and it wasn't for the scantily clad women.

He was surveying the club - like one of those jaguars she saw on the Discovery Channel once (she was bored and there really was nothing else to watch) scouting the terrain for threats.

That's how he spotted her. He swept his hand up and touched Tommy's arm, jerking his head towards her. There was something kind in his eyes whenever he looked at her but she could see the wall coming up, a mask forming, the charming grin automatically appearing onto his face. He stood by silently as Tommy hollered her name, waved to her and called her over.

"Why are you dressed like that?" Tommy drawled as he came forward to hug her.

"I had a meeting here." Felicity answered, looking down at her business suit. "They're my clients."

"Only you can have a meeting in the middle of a party, Felicity." He said, kissing her cheek. Tommy was very casual about it, and brief. Felicity liked it nonetheless.

She waved her hand at Oliver. He gave her the plastered grin. "Hi, again." He said.

"Oliver Queen." Tommy said, pointing to his friend. "Meet the indomitable Felicity Smoak." He hugged Felicity to his side. "I know you met her today afternoon but - you should meet her as my friend. They'll tell you she's a great many things. Entrepreneur, CEO of her own company, genius! But -" He turned to her to give her fond look. "Felicity's my buddy."

Felicity beamed at him and caught Oliver's expression just as she turned her head. He smiled at her - but -

\- what was going on in that mind of his?

And so she was at the bar, in her business suit and achy feet trapped in her heels, nursing a margharita when the shit with Thea went down.

The protective, passive agressive disapproval she saw in Oliver when he spotted his under-age sister getting wasted in the club, had Felicity sipping the margharita a little too fiercely. The impact of Oliver's death on Thea was something she seldom considered and the evidence to all the resentment, grief, loss and the love was right there in both siblings.

Felicity felt sorry for Oliver.

Right until Thea divulged Tommy and Laurel's secret.

"They've been screwing while you were gone!" Thea spat, resentfully.

Oliver - didn't flinch.

Laurel was supposed to be the great love of Oliver's life according to Tommy, merely because she was the one he kept coming back to.

She had met Laurel a couple of times for coffee after Oliver's return - and it was evident from the look on Laurel's face that not everyone was happy to see him. And there was the fact that Laurel lost her sister. Who was now confirmed dead. Which sucked.

Felicity saw the pained looks on Tommy and Laurel's face but Oliver...Oliver didn't reveal a thing. He clenched his jaw and kept insisting for Thea to go home.

And so Felicity assumed it to be shock until she saw the look he exchanged with Laurel - and then she realized that he already knew about them.

Felicity felt so overwhelmed she decided to intervene.

"C'mon Thea." Felicity grabbed Thea's elbow like she had several times before, whenever Tommy called her desperately because he couldn't trace Thea, or if Thea was up to no good.

"Oh and here comes Fix-it Felicity!" Thea moaned when Felicity stood up and took charge to drop Thea home.

"Hey! That's not fair!" Tommy protested.

"Why? She's the clean-up crew right?" Thea retorted. "Always there to fix everything by swooping in - just one call from Tommy and here's Fix-It Felicity your friendly neighbourhood problem fixer."

"I'm sorry." Oliver said to Felicity after he chided Thea.

"Don't apologize, Ollie - " Thea spat while Felicity draped Thea's coat over her. "She's seen worse."

Felicity had seen worse.

She could feel the weight of Oliver's gaze on her - but she didn't have the heart to meet it. There was another thing eating away at her.

Oliver was in love with Laurel.

But.

Laurel was in love with Oliver.

Despite everything.

 

_(Boom boom boom thump thump.)_

 

They've reached some sort of impasse.

"Yes. No. Yes. Oh god. I dunno." She slaps her forehead. "Oh god, my server room's on fire." She whined. "I have to go."

"Okay - at least - " He touches her elbow. "Mr. Diggle's my bodyguard. Let him drive you."

"Mr. Diggle thinks you're a dick, by the way, too." Felicity declares.

Oliver doesn't seem too bothered by that. It was almost as though he resignedly admits he's been a dick to Mr. Diggle. Mr. Diggle didn't contest her statement, either.

The light brush of fingers on her elbow, turns to a full-fledged grasp. "Felicity." He says, with urgency in his voice. "You don't really look like you've got it together tonight."

There is something in the way he looks at her. Tommy cares for her, sure - he even found her adorable. Cooper loved her - sure, he respected her and found her sexy. Barry thinks she's cute - sure, and there might even be a future there.

But Oliver looks at her with this soul-rending gazey-thing which makes her feel split wide open and naked. She wondered if this complete exposition of her soul was his thing. If this is what Laurel fell for. If this is what had Sara running off with him...

Before she realizes what she's thinking, Felicty's talking. "I don't trust you because you're still in love with Laurel and Tommy cares for her too bloody damn much. I don't trust you because when you were with Laurel, you took off with her sister. And she died. Oliver? Who does that to a woman they love?"

He winces.

Felicity doesn't feel - she just talks, actually she just shouts. "I don't trust you because Tommy and Laurel have a thing and I think that they're good for each other, but there's you. And. He doesn't stand a chance against you." She jabs a finger into his chest. "And it's not because you're better. You'll never be half the man, Tommy is - it's just this - there's something about you, Oliver - it makes girls want to do stuff with you. And Laurel deserves better. Tommy deserves better! I don't know you, but they say you're different, after the Island, but you always did what you wanted then, and you'll do what you want, now - and I dread the day you decide you want Laurel."

Felicity's head was throbbing. It could be the headache, it could be the bass of the club, it could be the anger that vibrated in her veins.

"You love him." The words cut through her rage, stilling everything within - plain and simple. Words, that he said.

_Yes._ She thinks. Oh. _Oh!_

 "No." She answers, vehemently. "Yes - I'm his friend. I care about him..."

Oliver's mask is up - but there's something different. Something that's almost bordering on punishing when he looks into her eyes. It seeps into his tone. "Does he know?" Oliver asked.

Felicity realizes the grip over her elbow, is harsh. She shrugs it off.

"I have to go..." She says, pushing him away. Mr. Diggle makes to follow her but she puts her hand up, and stalls him.

"Felicity." Oliver's voice is harsh and even through the thumping base that's reverberating through her body, she feels it slice through. "Let Mr. Diggle take you home."

"No," She says, loudly and hurriedly. "I'm sorry - I meant no thank you."

She practically turns around and runs away from him. She stumbles through the club pawing her phone of the cab-app and exclaims a "Yes!" with a fist pump when she realizes there's one just right outside who'll accept her service.

 

_(Boom boom boom thump thump)._

Felicity wasn't a possessive woman. Which according to all the talk shows and psychology blogs was unprecedented given her abandonment issues.

She was totally okay with it when Tommy stopped hanging out with her. He called her less and less but there was the occasional text so she didn't think much of it. She missed him every now and then, but every paparazzi pic she saw of Tommy with Oliver Queen made her dismiss the thought.

She didn't dwell on the photos of Oliver Queen. She didn't want to analyse the face of Tommy's brother-by-choice or think of his blue-blue eyes and his dimpled smile.

She took on a new assignment and she threw herself in work. She thought she had it together - or so she thought.

"You break up with your BFF or something?" Barry said to her, one night while they were going over the client-briefs.

"What? No! Haven't you seen the news?" Felicity said, all in breath.

"Yeah - but - you've been working yourself to death, Felicity." Barry said, looking up over his glasses. "And - you've been working the 'C-team' too hard."

"No way!" Felicity protested. "I have not! Do they feel that way? Did Cisco say something?"

"Cisco first called you a Nazi which - given that your Jewish, kinda seems wierd and offensive so he decided to just call you Vlad."

"Vlad?"

"As in the Impaler."

Felicity burst out laughing. Barry chuckled with her.

"Keep it up and you'll lose the number one spot." Barry said, nodding at her.

Felicity's laughter subsided. She recalled the day Tommy showed up at her office, with a bottle of expensive red wine, waving the phone.

"Guess who's been voted as number one in 'Best bosses to work for in Starling!'' He said, grinning ear to ear.

He showed her the survey of on a popular lifestyle magazine's web-edition.  She was stunned and overwhelmed. "I didn't know I was old enough to be a contender!" She joked.

"Who'd have thought sixteen year olds could be bosses, huh?" Tommy said, rubbing her head.

"Ugh!" Felicty made a face. "I guess this means have to give my employees a raise."

They both sniggered as the opened the bottle.

As she smiled at the memory, Felicity had also been thinking that it had been more than a month since she met Tommy in person.

But he more than made up for it.

She was lecturing her software team about the pros and cons of net-neutrality and the right to free knowledge at one a.m. in the night, looking at the zoned out faces of her application specialists while she talked, feeling a sense of morbid fear inside that what Barry said about her was true.

Maybe she was turning into Vlad the Impaler.

Tommy's call came just as she dismissed them. (Their relieved sighs and drained expressions didn't help her fast building inferiority complex.)

" _Hey_!" He greeted her. _"I'm guessing you're not sleeping."_

"Barry says I'm turning into Vlad the Impaler." She blurted.

_"Who's Vlad the Impaler?"_

"Romanian King or Prince or...something. He used to boil children and make their parents eat them." She said as she sorted through her papers.

_"Oh - kay."_ He sounded confused. _"Is that what you're doing, these days?"_

"I dunno...but I might as well be." She grumbled and then had an afterthought. "Hey! Do I look like someone who'd boil children and make their parents eat them?"

_"Erm..."_

"Don't answer that." She said.

He chuckled across the line and it made her smile.

_"So."_  He said. " _Did Vlad the Impaler, celebrate his birthday with wine or...?"_

"What?" Felicity said, distractedly, shutting down her computer.

There was a knock sounding off the glass door. She turned around and nearly dropped the phone.

He stood there, wearing a black suit with the top button open of a pristine white shirt and a goofy grin. She heard his voice on the phone as she watched his mouth move. _"Bet, you thought I forgot, huh?"_ He teased.

"I uh..." She stuttered.

_"Happy Birthday!"_ He said and opened the door.

But that wasn't just what had Felicity gaping...

Her eyes drifted beyond Tommy to find Oliver standing there regarding her with this intense gaze that made her feel -

\- _something_.

He wasn't really smiling but the corners of his mouth were turned up in what could be called a smirk. He held a basket in one hand while the other was casually tucked into his suit pocket.

Thing was, Felicity wasn't really into alpha males. Their general brusque, dominant, passive aggressive vibes put her off, no matter how pretty their faces. And everything about Oliver  screamed alpha to her. She ought to have just brushed him off as soon as she picked up on his - whatever it was.

Except - she just stood there, unable to move, yet unable to stand because her knees really felt flaccid. She felt...naked under Oliver Queen's blue eyes.

His smile widened, when her eyes locked with his. He lifted his hand out of his suit pocket and caught Tommy's elbow. He leaned over and whispered something to his friend, all the while staring at her, keeping her frozen in her spot, just from the intensity with which he looked at her. Tommy and him seemed to discuss something for a brief while which seemed like a dispute, until Tommy seemed to resignedly nod and take the basket which Oliver handed over.

"Oliver's gotta go!" Tommy announced as he entered her office.

Oliver's face changed. It was almost as though an invisible wall came up and masked everything. Suddenly, the intensity was gone and a sort of goofiness replaced the serious expression. He widened his mouth in a charming grin to match, that she knew from all the photos.

It was like a whole other person with the same face. 

He lifted his palm, waved at her and then turned around.

Felicity was aware that Tommy had already set the basket on the conference table, but she was so captivated by the sight of Oliver Queen that she stood fixed to her spot.

"I asked him to join us!" Tommy said, completely oblivious of her state of astonishment. "But - um - something came up."

(He was lying. She always knew when Tommy made stuff up.)

"That's not the discussion you two had." Felicity said, still looking at Oliver's back as he walked away. Five years on an island, probably starving - and the man had a body that looked great in a suit - even from the rear end.

"No, you're right." Tommy said, glancing back at Oliver and then towards her. "I wanted to surprise you. He was totally cool with it, till we came here. I have no idea why but he feels like he's intruding, all of a sudden. He'll be happy to meet you some other time. But it feels it's more appropriate if it's not today. I don't try to push him Felicity - he's been through enough. I hope that's okay?"

Tommy knew it was okay. Anything was okay for Felicity if that was what Tommy wanted and Felicity knew that Tommy knew it.

Had she not been gawping at Oliver's retreating form, she would probably have missed him turning around to look at them - to look at her.

In that infinitesimal moment, the wall was down, the mask was off, the intensity was back. Oliver seemed surprised to catch her gaze, when he did. He slowed down, stopped and then turned, keeping his hands stuffed into his pockets.

He just...nodded at her with that unreadable expression in his eyes.

She got the impression that he was thanking her. It was the strangest thing.

But - for what?  

 

 

_(Boom boom boom, thump thump_

\- even when she's out of the club the rhythm's echoing within her)

 

By the time, Felicity scrambles into the cab - she's ninety percent certain that's she's possibly in love with Tommy Merlyn.

And that Oliver Queen knows it.

And.

She feels _something_ for Oliver as well.

But what?


	2. Move me, in ways undefined.

 

Felicity wakes up the next morning to...

a) a hangover from hell  
b) the realization that she's madly in love with Tommy Merlyn  
c) the sound of banging at the door (which she's fifty percent sure is not  _just_ inside her head),

and d) a firm resolution to start dating.

"I'm coming." She groans and stumbles out of bed when the pounding at the door becomes forceful enough to vibrate through her entire house and somehow into her head. She's squinting her eyes when she opens the door to the sleep-deprived face of Barry Allen.

"You look miserable." He says, matter-of-factly, rubbing his eyes.

Felicity remembers something as she blinks at Barry. "Yes." She exclaims, all of a sudden.

"What?" Barry says and starts to yawn.

"Yes, I'll go out with you." She says, with a wide close lipped smile

Barry's yawn freezes mid-way and his eyes widen. He looks hilarious - like a zapped fish, gaping at her with those wide eyes and that wide open mouth, looking at her like she's insane.

Which. She probably is.

He snaps his mouth shut and frowns. "What...?" He says.

"Remember, when you asked me out and I said I'd get back to you?"

"You - mean like three years ago?" He blinks. "I kinda figured it was a 'no' because you never got back to me."

(Oh. Was it really that long ago?

So that means - she's officially not been in a healthy relationship for more than three years. Thank you, Tommy Merlyn and this stupid crush/love business.)

"Well," Felicity says, rubbing her head to ease the headache. "I'm giving you my answer, now." 

"Oh! Erm..." He hesitates.

Felicity knows Barry too well not to understand that look on his face. She makes a face. "You're seeing that cop lady, aren't you?" She mumbles, disappointed (just on principle - though; because she's truly happy that Barry's found someone.)

"Er- yeah..." He says, scrubbing the back of his neck looking at her apologetically. "I sorta am..."

"Just my luck!" She mutters.

Felicity pouts.

"So can I come in -?" He says, sheepishly. "I kinda haven't slept all night....and the train ride wasn't fun."

Felicity ponders over her fate and her questionable life decisions, while she steps back letting him in. He brushes past her into her living room, and drops his large backpack on the carpet next to her sofa.

"Where's Cisco?" She says.

"He went straight to the facility." Barry says and then squints at her. "Are you alright? You look like you have a hangover."

"Ye-es!" Felicity whimpers out, with a pained expression."And it hu-rts....!" She whines, rubbing the heel of her palm against her temple.

"Now, _that_ I can help you with!" Barry says, beaming at her.

All in all, Felicity thinks, that the server room burning down isn't the worst thing that happened last night. If anything, Felicity surmises (after Barry has her brain rewired with his special hangover tomato juice, a pretzel and heavy duty aspirin) is that it's motivation.

"Motivation for?" Barry asks, when she tells him as much.

"Dating."

"What?" He looks up from the pot of coffee he's brewing.

"Data Center!" Felicity recovers. "I think we should look into getting bigger offices with larger space for a full fledged data center."

"That's an idea." Barry agrees and comes over to sit by her side, rummaging through his duffel bag for some clothes and then drifts deeper into her house. "I'll get Bobbi-with-an-I to start looking into some space."

"Maybe I need an assistant, too." She thinks out loud.

"Why?"

"To set me up with an online dating profile." She says, not really thinking about what she's saying.

"You need an assistant to set you up for online dating?" Barry turns around to look at her from the corridor.

"No." Felicity says. "I was just - I'm not making any sense. Y'know...Hangover?"

Barry shakes his head at her before he heads inside.

"You know where everything is." Felicity calls out and goes to the coffee maker. She's got a fresh cup of coffee in her hand and the workings of a game plan to start dating (because - she totally needs to get over her Tommy fixation) when the door bell rings.

"That'll be Cisco!" She hears Barry yell, just before the sound of bathroom door slamming shut, somehow reverberating into her body making her head throb again.

Felicity's literally wincing as she opens the door, rubbing her temple about to yell at Cisco for not calling her sooner but....

Well. That's not Cisco.

Like - how can someone pull off that fresh and handsome look so early in the morning? He looks so good, she wants to eat him.

"You want to what?" Oliver says, looking at her incredulously.

(Hurrah. Score zero for brain, score negative five thousand for her stupid mouth.)

"No." She squeaks and then frowns at him. Mr. Diggle's standing behind Oliver, looking extremely amused.

She looks back at Oliver and frowns again. "What do you want?"

"I -" He starts to say, then sighs out loud. "I wanted to check on you."

"Why?"

"Felicity  - you just took off last night." He says, slowly. "You were drunk and you seemed upset."

Felicity's busy staring at his sterling grey suit, that beautiful blue tie that brings out his eyes, the nice scruff on his jaw and...

Uh-oh. Last night. Word Vomit. The things she'd said! _Ohgodohgodohgod!_

"Yeah...." Felicity says, uncomfortably. "But - but you had Mr. Diggle follow me last night...so."

Both men look surprised.

"You should let him do his job." She says, mentally trying to shake off the effect Oliver's eyes have on her.

"He was doing his job." Oliver says, looking between Diggle and her. "I had asked him to..."

"His job is protecting you." Felicity says, taking a sip of her coffee. "Not me."

"My apologies Ms. Smoak." Diggle says, sheepishly. "But - I did leave when I saw you'd reached your office, safely."

"Don't feel bad, Mr. Diggle." Felicity says. "You're like - a total dawg when it comes to stealth!" She beams at him, affectionately - because, Felicity decides - she likes Mr. Diggle. "It's just that I have a bajillion hidden cameras and a killer facial rec algorithm programmed into my security system that alerts me whenever an unknown face pops up in the perimeter of any of my facilities. It's kinda cute! It's like this little pop up that goes 'intruder alert'. It's hilarious, you should...!" She trails off realizing that she's rambling and that Mr. Diggle looks like he's trying to hold back a laugh and Oliver's making this cute confused pouty look that makes him...

...well it makes him very agreeable to look at.

Which complicates things. Because. Felicity has decided she's not going to like Oliver.

"So, what can I do for you?" She says, in a mock perky voice. Felicity leans against the door, sipping her coffee. She looks at Oliver, who's just looking at her like she's a complete nut.

( _Oh god!_ She thinks with a sense of panic that she hopes doesn't show on her face. _He's totally seeing the total nut I am_!)

"Can I come in?" Oliver says.

Felicity opens the door wider and leans back against the door. His shoulder brushes past her as he walks in and she almost spills her coffee because - well he's kinda got this thing about him that makes her all electrified and jumbled up inside.

Felicity follows him into her living room and suddenly it feels like the room is too small.

"I'll wait in the car." Mr. Diggle says from the porch.

"Wait!" She says, feeling a little silly for not inviting him in. "Let me get you some coffee!"

"No - Miss Smoak - it's okay...!" He starts to say but Felicity's already on her way to the coffeemaker.

"How do you two take your coffees?" She asks, not particularly looking back at either of them because she really doesn't want to see Oliver's face.

It's not because she's unsuccessfully not-liking him, but it's more before she just wants to stare at his pretty face and his pretty blue eyes and just drool.

Because she's such an idiot like that.

Diggle answers first. She hears Oliver's answer after a long pause.

Felicity hands Oliver his coffee, rather snobbishly, before she heads towards the door to hand over the cup to Mr. Diggle. He gives her a warm gracious smile. "Nice Jammies," He says, softly - winks at her and then heads off to the car. 

Felicity's holding the door, about to thank him for the compliment because they're her favourite jammies except -

_Oh Frrrraaaaack!_

Felicity when she looks down on herself horrified. Her silly babushka-doll print jammies were one thing.  She's wearing that stupid tank top that's two sizes small (thank you old laundry room drier!) and shredded in very inappropriate skin exposing places and ( _OMG!)_ her nipples are just sticking out and she totally forgot to put on her robe!

Now he knows she has small boobs and dresses like a homeless hooker.

 _Oh dear god_! Even Tommy's never seen her like this.

Felicity doesn't really turn around. Instead, she keeps her back to Oliver and slinks sideways towards the M.I.T. jersey, draped over the seat of the small chair next to her side-stand. She nimbly pulls it out from under a pile of papers and electronic knick-knacks she's dumped over it.

She pretends not to notice when all the stuff just tumbles down clumsily on the floor.

( _So much for nimbly. Ugh!_ )

She winces, furious with her epic fail at being smooth and swift, pulling the oversized garment over her head and then turns around, trying desperately to keep a straight face.

When she turns around to look at Oliver, he's watching her with a peculiar expression.

Felicity goes to pour herself a cup of coffee, so she can put some space between him and her because - it's kinda weird having him at such close proximity.

"Okay!" She says, going towards him, feeling relatively composed. "So! What's up?"

He's just watching her for a few seconds and then straightens his face. "Felicity..." He says (and Felicity doesn't know why but she really likes the way he says her name). "It's about last night."

 _Last night...? Oh. oh. oh. Oh god! Are we back to that?_ What the hell had come out of her mouth last night! Felicity makes a note to add a resolution never to drink, like - ever.

"Yes - I should say I'm sorry." Felicity says, quickly. "I don't - I mean - I wasn't thinking straight. I mean - I sort of meant it - but I don't want you to think that _I_ think you're a bad person or anything - it's just...I - I guess - your death - or your exile - was really hard on them both and..." She breaks off when she meets his eyes. He looks unhappy - almost remorseful even.

If death was hardest on the ones left behind, what was being presumed dead been like? From whatever tidbits on Oliver that Tommy has given her till now Felicity knows she's not wrong to assume that this might have been the hardest on him than anyone of the people he left behind.

Wonderful. It was as if he had a cat, she'd probably have kicked it twice now.

 "Dammit!" She hisses and looks away.

(Awkward silence 1. Felicity's inappropriate babble 100 and...)

"How long have you been in love with him?" Oliver asks quietly.

 _Forever - maybe?_ Felicity thinks. "Oh, are we back to that again?" Felicity says, feeling annoyed, suddenly. "Can you actually digest the concept that men and women can be friends? Or is it so impossible for Starling's favourite man-slut to imagine that there's a such a thing as a platonic -"

She stops speaking as soon as Oliver steps forward - and it's like way, way into her personal space. So friggin' close that she's actually stepping back and her back hits the separator between her living room and the kitchen, and her neck cranes upwards looking into his face and that stare - oh god - it's so intense, she's shifting uncomfortably in her spot.

"Felicity." His voice drops into a soft growl.

_The way he says her name...._

Felicity gulps. "Oliver." She responds, unwittingly.

His eyes drift from her eyes to her mouth.

"I know you care about Tommy," He says in that low voice that's making the small hairs over her arms and the back of her neck, stand on-end. "But you have to know this - I care about Tommy too. And Laurel."

She nods, gulping harder - because the proximity isn't helping her.

"You were right. I've hurt Laurel...terribly." He says. "And I can't ever make it up to her.  I don't want to see either of them suffer, any more than they already have."

"Are you saying that I'll take advantage of Tommy?" She says, feeling defensive. "Not that it's any of your business, but - I'll never do that to Tommy or Laurel." She looks up into his eyes, daring him to tell her the what he's thinking.

For the first time, she sees his gaze falter. Like she's hit some pressure point.

"No, that's not what I'm saying." He says, his face softening.  "I'm just trying to tell you - that if they're happy with each other, I'm not going to come in their way."

"Why?" She says.

"Why what?"

"Why do you want to tell me that? You don't owe me anything."

He doesn't answer. He lifts his arm, as if he wants to touch her face, but he stops his hand just short of her chin.

The sound of someone clearing their throat breaks it - whatever _it_ is.

Felicity and Oliver both turn their heads to find Barry Allen standing there looking somewhat mortified and amused at the same time.

And he's half naked.

Felicity nearly groans out loud at how awkward this looks. Barry with his hairless upper body glistening with water beads from the shower, and her bright purple towel wrapped around his waist in the corridor just standing there, dripping all over her floor.

"Hi! Sorry - to interrupt...." Barry winces, looking away. " _This_ \- whatever it is - but - I can't find my suit."

Oliver was sort of _leaning_ over her and now, he's straightened up - but he's not stepping back. Felicity squirms in her spot because she really wants to get away from there but it seems that every which way she moves, means contact with Oliver's body.

"It's umm..." Felicity says.

And as if that wasn't embarrassing enough, she hears the jangle of keys in her front door lock. Oliver suddenly wheels around obscuring her view, but Felicity doesn't have to look to know who it is.

Only Tommy has the spare keys to her house.

"Oliver!" She hears his surprised voice. "Wh- what are you doing here?"

From where she stands she can see Barry, folding his arms over his bare chest and smiling amusedly towards Tommy's direction.

"Barry?" Tommy says. "Where's Smoak?"

"Here!" Felicity raises her arm.

Oliver seems to snap out of his haze (or whatever he's in) and steps away. Felicity's grateful because she breathes easier but...she doesn't know why she held her breath in the first place.

Felicity's overwhelmed by the sheer number of tall men inside her tiny living room. She feels like her house has just shrunk three times smaller.

Tommy looks adorably scrumptious as always but he doesn't look pleased. He's not as bothered by the sight of half-naked Barry as much as he seems by the sight of completely clothed Oliver.

"I er - hate to interrupt this..." Barry says, cutting through the tension with a goofy smile and an uncertain tone of voice. "But I'm kinda getting cold."

Felicity snaps out of it. "Oh for crying out loud!" She exclaims. "Barry, your stupid suit is in the spare cupboard!"

Barry's face brightens up with relief (obviously at not having to stay through the awkwardness) and he takes off towards her bedroom.

Oliver exchanges glances between Tommy and her.

"That's Barry, by the way." Felicity says to Oliver. "He's my business partner and chief of Operations. He runs the  Central City chapter of SmoakScreen Cyber."

"Smoak's house is like a half-way house." Tommy adds by means of explanation.

"Only for my _friends_." Felicity stresses, slipping away further from Oliver's sphere of his general Oliver-ness.

Tommy looks at Oliver suspiciously, even though his voice is a little too perky. "So, what are you doing here, buddy?"

"I was just checking up on her." Oliver says, flashing that plastered smile that Felicity is convinced now, is his fake smile. "Seeing how she took off last night."

"That's awful nice of you." Tommy says. He purses his lips in this controlled smile that Felicity knows is Tommy's disapproval-face. He looks towards Felicity and then gives her this comforting smile. "You okay, Smoak?"

(Also. Felicity's a little flattered by Tommy's protectiveness.)

"Yeah - yep!" She squeaks.

There's this awkward silence that's provably worse than a hangover

"So." Tommy shuts the door behind him. "I saw Cisco at Merlyn Global. Heard about your server room. Oh! Sorry about the mix-up last night. I can't believe they left your name off the list."

"No hey! It's fine." Felicity says, a little too excitedly. "I was just thrilled...to be there. Your new club! I'm proud of you, Tommy."

Tommy nods, but she knows she hasn't fooled him. He goes towards the blue futon - _his_ futon and plops down. It does not escape her that he's still looking at Oliver with that - odd look.

"Oliver was just leaving, weren't you?" She blurts.

"Did you stay the night?" Tommy says to Oliver, suddenly. His face is as serious as his voice.

_Oh no. No. No. No._

"Hey!" Felicity chides him.

"What?" Tommy says. "I sent him to get you - and then I didn't see either of you."

"Yeah - I - my server -"  She stops mid-sentence, frowns when what Tommy says hits her and looks at Oliver. "You left your club's opening?"

Oliver doesn't answer. Felicity sees that plastered grin fade. He meets Tommy's accusatory look with a cold unflinching stare.

This can't happen.

She may not be inclined to like Oliver Queen (though her feelings are pretty blotchy in the not-like department ) but he is Tommy's best friend. And, though she kinda misses Tommy and she's worried about Oliver's feelings for Laurel, she knows that Oliver is an integral part of Tommy's life.

And as flattered as she is by Tommy's concern, she's not going to be the reason they disagree.

No. Nope. Not her thing. 

"Okay." Felicity huffs,. "I did not sleep with your old BFF, okay? Geez! Tommy! I have standards." She winces and looks at Oliver apologetically. "Not that I think you're below them. I mean you're up to my standards, way - way above it, actually! It's just I have a rule about sleeping with men on the first date. Not that we ever had a first date. Or any date. In fact we pretty much qualify as being un-dateable. Not that I wouldn't sleep with you, ever. I'd totally sleep with you - oh. Oh. Oh my god!" She blushes in morbid embarrassment and jerks her head at Tommy who's looking more relaxed with relief and amusement. "Ohmigod - why are you still letting me talk?" 

"Because, you're funny when you do that!" Tommy answers, already doubling over in chuckles.

Oliver's face breaks into a small amused smile.

"Oh! My brain just thinks of the worst things-!" She smacks her head, hoping to stop any more embarrassing stream of words. "Will you shut up!" Felicity huffs, unable to stop her smile, when Tommy doesn't stop laughing. Felicity grabs a quarter pillow and flings it at him. He catches it, still guffawing.

Felicity takes a deep breath, to gather herself and looks at Oliver.  

Oliver's face lightens, he smiles at her and says softly. "Goodbye, Felicity." Then makes for her door.

Felicity has no clue why, but the way he smiles and says that makes her hear skip a beat.

 

 

*

 

Since Felicity doesn't cook and making attempts to do so are, in general, pointless, the great Tommy Merlyn, adorable lovable cutie-pie that he is, waves a huge brown bag at her that she promptly lunges for.

It's got bagels, donuts , banana bread, croissants and everything Felicity loves about breakfast with enough to spare for Barry Allen.

"So - _that_ was Oliver Queen?" Barry says as he emerges, fully clothed, looking spiffy in a business suit. "Maybe I should do _Survivor_ on an island for five years."

"All the workouts in the world, aren't gonna give you abs, Barry." Felicity says.

"You do know business suits with sneakers aren't all the rage anymore?" Tommy Merlyn comments.

"Welcome to the internet-age!" Barry gloats as he grabs a few goodies from the bag. "We wear what we want and still make money!"

Felicity picks up some papers that had ungraciously landed on the floor in her paltry attempt to save her modesty in front of Oliver Queen and look suave while she did so (unsuccessfully - but whatever!). She sorts through the bunch, hands them to Barry and packs him off to meet their Legal team before he can continue his speech about internet-entrepreneurship.

"So!" Tommy says, grinning at her, when they're alone. "I want to organize a fundraiser for CNRI."

 _Of course, anything for Gorgeous Laurel,_ Felicity thinks.

"Now that Oliver knows -" Tommy says. "I don't feel this guilt anymore. I want Laurel to know that I'm in this for the long haul. I'm going to treat Laurel the way she deserves, you know - be a gentleman." When Felicity snorts. He protests. "Hey! I can do that!"

"Okay." She says, chomping down on a banana bread slice.

"Will you come?"

"Of course." Felicity says. "Do you expect me to throw money Gorgeous Laurel's way just so that you can get laid?"

"Yes." Tommy says, sheepishly.

"Ah. Soooo gentlemanly." She teases.

He blushes. (Like, goes pink - all the way to his ears.)  "No, I didn't mean it that way." He says. "But come on - ! You keep saying you want a chance to do something more for the City and CNRI provides legal aid to those who can't afford it...."

"Tommy!" She says, smiling at him (feeling a little jealous, but happy for him nonetheless). "CNRI is a cause I believe in, I'm there. Okay? You don't have to sell it to me."

"That's my girl!" He says. "So, seriously - what happened last night that has Oliver checking on you this morning?"

Felicity's smile goes flat. "Nothing." She says.

"I guess we need to have the talk."

"Huh?"

"The Oliver Queen talk."

"There's an Oliver Queen talk?" Felicity says, grabbing a bagel, nudging him to give her some space. He draws his legs back so she can sit cross-legged on the futon, facing him while she munches.

"Felicity. Oliver's the brother, I never had. I love him - I do. He's the best friend a guy can have but I'm not sure if he can be the same for a girl."

"Okay." She says. "And I should care because?"

"He's - he's never really been a guy for long term relationships. It's not that he's a bad guy, it's just - I don't think he regrets the disasters he leaves in his wake."

"Not unlike someone I know." Felicity teases, wiggling her eyebrows at him.

Tommy rolls her eyes at her jab. "He's a charming guy." He says, ignoring her.

"Yeah, I don't think he's all that." She says, sarcastically, looking away, rummaging through the paper bag and fishing out a donut.

"Yeah okay." Tommy says, like he doesn't believe her. He reaches for her donut; she lets him takes it, thinking he's going to eat it full. She's about to fish for another one when he hands back a half-eaten donut to her.

She makes a face and takes it in a pincer grasp.

"Don't sleep with him." Tommy says, bluntly.

"Geez! Tommy!" She mumbles out while biting on the uneaten edges. "I told you I didn't!"

"I know you didn't, Felicity - I'm just..." He breaks off;  he accepts the rest of the donut as she hands it back to him. "You may want to." He says, "he can be a persuasive guy."

"What's the big deal anyway?" Her voice is muffled coming out of her stuffed mouth. "Half of Starling's already slept with him. And from what I hear, _you_ slept with the other half."

" _You're_ the big deal, Smoak." Tommy sits up and looks at her intently. Felicity feels fuzzy and warm and... _loved_. She smiles back at him affectionately as a response to that look he gives her.

"He's a different man, after the island. Sure. Maybe he still loves Laurel." When he sees her wide-eyed response, he shrugs. "I'm not a fool. She's always been the one for him, y'know. He kept crawling back to her then. The fact, that he holds a flame for even now, isn't so strange to me."

Felicity's smile fades.

Tommy reaches his hand out and strokes her hair. Felicity leans her face into his palm.

"He was _in_ love with Laurel when he cheated on her - several times." Tommy says.

"Why are you telling me this, Tommy?"

"Felicity, I don't want to see you hurt. You're the sweetest, most generous person I know. The other girls in his life want him for his money - or his looks, but you'll probably get caught up in who he really is - because that's who you are. But that's the problem. I don't think he intentionally means to hurt . I just think that - he's a restless spirit. He's not capable of monogamy. He'll probably act like he cares for you, he'll probably date you, sleep with you, make you think like you're the most special girl in his life, get you caught his spell and then one day he'll realize he's bored and he'll be gone."

_Just like your father..._

The words that Tommy doesn't say.

"Okay." Felicity says, nodding.  "A - I don't think Oliver likes me that way and I know I don't like him that way at all.  B - you know me. I'm not that girl who just gets lost in a guy and..." She huffs.

"C - I can take care of myself, Tommy." She adds.

Tommy drops his hand to her shoulder.

(Also. Felicity is literally fighting the urge to kiss him.)

He's looking at her sympathetically when he says, "Do you know how many girls have said that when it comes to Oliver Queen?"

Felicity imagines it was a great many number.

 

 

*

 

"Soooo..." Barry says, wheeling his chair around in circles.

Felicity looks up from the minutes of the meeting she's had with Finance and Legal.

Barry stops wheeling the chair and grins at her. "So, you and Oliver."

"What?"

"Tommy's long lost bro-love."

"Oh shut up!" She retorts.

"Oh shut up, Tommy's bro-love? Or oh shut up you and Oliver?" He teases.

"Oh shut up both!" Felicity says, making a face. "There's no me and Oliver."

"Yeah - " Barry says, wincing. "'Cause I'm pretty sure he was _leaning_ back then..."

"No, he wasn't!" Felicity cuts him off.

"So - let me get this right." Barry says, counting on his fingers. "Tommy Merlyn's in love with Gorgeous Laurel."

"How'd you know she's Gorgeous Laurel?"

"Because that's what you always call her: Gorgeous Laurel. So Tommy's in love with Gorgeous Laurel - and Oliver's in love with Gorgeous Laurel, too. And Gorgeous Laurel maybe loves Tommy? _Eeeverybody_ loves Tommy." Barry sniggers.

"Huh?"

"Think about it. Laurel maybe loves Tommy. I'm pretty sure Oliver sister's got the hots for Tommy too." Barry adds.

Felicity snorts.

"And Oliver's sort of bro-loves Tommy. God knows even Cisco has a man-crush on that guy."

"So?"

"And you're in love with Tommy Merlyn!

"I'm am not." She says, curtly.

"Yeah, yeah if you say so." He rolls his eyes and shrugs. "Everybody loves Tommy! You're in love with Tommy Merlyn. And Oliver knows it. And then Oliver's sort of _leaning_ into you."

"What does leaning on have to...?"

"Not lean _on_ , lean _into_."

"What's the difference?"

"Leaning into is when a guy kinda slides over a girl's space." Cisco says, entering the room and plunking into a chair, pulling his legs up over the table. "It's kinda like a move without being one - you know the start of the 90/10 rule."

"What's the 90/10?" Felicity wrinkles her nose.

"Ninety percent the guy leans in for a kiss and girl's sort of meeting him like ten percent of the way."

Felicity blinks. "Is that a rule?"

"Hell yeah!" Cisco says loudly, nodding his head. "It's when you know a girl's totally into kissing you."

"Except if you're Cisco." Barry starts to chortle. "In which case the girl's sort of leaning _down._ "

"Oh! _Oh_!" Cisco, says mockingly. "Smooth! Barry Allen! I'll have you know women love small packages."

"Oh no. Don't even get me started on small packages, buddy!" Barry starts to laugh.

"So what were you talking about anyway?" Cisco says, frowning. "Who's leaning into Felicity?"

"No one." Felicity says, blushing.

"Felicity's in love with Tommy." Barry starts.

"Barry!" She hisses.

"So?" Cisco says.

"What?" Felicity says, looking horrified at Cisco.

"It's not really a secret, is it?" Cisco says, looking confused.

Felicity feels warmth all over her face. She looks at Barry who's nodding at her pitifully.

"Ohmigod!" She whispers, loudly. "Is it that obvious?"

"Felicity, you get heart eyes every time the Prince of Merlyn Empire comes around." Cisco says, reaching for the leftover wafers some considerate fellow from Finance brought over for the meeting.

"I do not!" Felicity hisses.

"Er - yeah. You do. The A-team running a book on when the two of you'll get together. I've got myself done for Valentine's day next year...."

"The A-team's betting on me and Tommy getting together?" Felicity says, stunned.

"As is the B- team. and the C- team?" Barry said, guffawing. "Well technically, Cisco's the leader of the C-team."

Felicity sat back, flabbergasted. Did everyone know? Was she that pathetic?

"Okay!" Felicity shouts, a little louder than she expected to. Both men fall silent. "Inappropriate conversations!" She says, looking at them meaningfully. "From senior management!"

They both look like they're going to laugh again.

Felicity slams the button on the intercom. "Bobbi-with-an-I? Could you get me the blue prints for the proposed site plans?" She switches the intercom off and hisses at her two friends. "And maybe pink slips for you two!"

That's all it takes for the two of them to burst into giggles.

 _"Sure thing, Felicity."_  Bobbi's voice comes through the interocom. _"Oh and Thea Queen's on line three."_

Felicity reaches for the phone and shoos Barry and Cisco away.

"Hi!" She says. "What's up?"

" _You're not mad at me?"_

"Why would I be mad at you?"

_"For the whole 'Fix-it-Felicity' thing."_

Felicity frowns for an instant until the memory of the night at the Max's club clicks.

 _"I know how you hate that."_ Thea adds, sounding remorseful.

"Yeah - well, you weren't yourself." She says, leaning back and adjusting her glasses. "Are you in trouble again, Thea?"

_"Wh- why would you ask me that?"_

"Because you're calling me from your home phone and not your cell-phone at six pm?" Felicity says, looking at the caller ID flashing.

 _"Yeah,"_ Thea says, sounding a little shy. _"I'm sorta grounded."_

"You get grounded?"

_"Apparently now that Ollie's back all reformed and stoic, that's a thing. I'm getting parented by my mom and my brother, now. A first both ways."_

A small bell sound alerts Felicity's attention to her computer. "Sounds rough." Felicity says, sarcastically. "Hang on, Thea. I'm putting you on speaker."

Felicity clicks the button and places the phone in its handset, diverting her attention to the computer. "So," She says, as she begins work. "What are you in for?"

 _"Shoplifting."_ Thea's voice comes over the speaker

"Do rich people need to shoplift?"

 _"I was going to pay for it....later."_ Thea whines.

"Do you need me to erase your record?"

_"Will you? Like that time with the..."_

"No. That was a onetime thing. For Tommy." Felicity says, smiling fondly as the image of Tommy's face pops up in her mind. She picks up her tablet, pivots her chair around so her back is facing the table as she goes through the server logs.

_"Laurel, covered for me. Got me to do community hours at CNRI."_

"Well Gorg-  I mean Laurel's the best!" Felicity says. "You know, Thea. It can't hurt to have so many people who love you and care about you, you know?"

_"But you don't hate me, right, Felicity? I know I was awful! I just - I was just so mad!"_

"Been there." Felicity says, thinking over her college days and her Goth phase. "Done that."

There's a small pause and sigh that Felicity can hear over the speaker.

 _"I'm flunking math."_ Thea's voice sounds small.

"Do you wanna come over?" Felicity says, as she taps away at her tablet.

_"Will you please speak to my stepfather at the fundraiser?"_

"What fundraiser?"

_"The CNRI fundraiser. Tommy's thing. Y'know Felicity - you should really get an assistant. Bobbi-with-an-I, doesn't really count."_

Felicity whole heartedly agrees.

"Are you trying to get out of your prison sentence?" Felicity says, smiling.

" _Maybe a little."_

"Hah! Nice try!"

_"Please, Felicity? I feel like cutting things up when I'm here. Besides - better you than that stuffy home tutor that Mom found."_

"Mr. Sniffles?" Felicity said, giggling.

(Thea's previous home tutor had a sinus condition and it kept driving Thea nuts.) _"I'll be good, I swear. I owe you."_

"So here's the deal." Felicity says, reaching for her table for the list of programs the mainframe was running before it caught fire . "One hour of math tutoring straight after school and the next hour of watching Reality TV together and that's it. I drop you straight home. You do your community hours on weekends. I'll work it out with Laurel."

Felicity frowns when something catches her eye. She wheels around towards her desktop and types in the strange I.P. address, looking between her tablet and the desktop's keys.

 _"Okay!"_ Thea says, sounding a little perkier. _"You're a total lifesaver, Felicity."_

"Yeah," Felicity mumbles. "I know." She blows Thea a loud kiss, wishes her goodbye and then hangs up after receiving a similar response.

"Hi." A voice surprises her.

Felicity jumps in her seat, emitting a little shriek.

"Oliver!" She breathes his name, keeping a hand on her chest, panting.

"I'm sorry - I tried knocking, but..." He motioned with his fingers to her desk-phone. "You were  a little preoccupied." Felicity notices he has very long, cordlike, very dexterous, fingers.

She shakes the thought off, motions for him to sit. Behind him, she sees Barry Allen walking by the glass walls of her office and stalling at the sight of Oliver. He makes a funny face as if to say 'you and Oliver!' that has her glowering at him.

When Oliver turns around to follow the direction of her gaze, Barry ducks and scampers off.

"Felicity, I -" He sighs. "I want to thank you."

"Huh?"

"For Thea." He says. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop but it was on speaker. I think it's a good idea if you tutor her. I'll speak to my mother."

"Thanks for your stamp of approval." Felicity says, and then regrets it when she seems him wince. There's really no need for her to be uppity. "I mean." She says, quickly. "I - I'm happy to help."

Oliver nods and then smiles, looking at her with this silent - weird affectionate expression.

Mr. Diggle appears in her glass door, and she's never been more grateful for an intrusion. He knocks and comes in when she smiles up at him. Oliver glances back and relaxes into the chair as Diggle comes by his side and leans his hip on the chair next to him.

"Uhm -" Oliver says."I've been trying to find an old friend of mine and I was hoping you could help me."

"I should add 'personal Internet researcher for Oliver Queen' to my job title." Felicity pushes her glasses up her nose and pulls up a window on her computer. She sees Oliver sigh and shake his head with the corners of his mouth turned upwards, with dimples showing on his face. "Happily, I mean." She adds.

"His name is Derek Reston. We were close before I went away. And I want to get back in touch." Oliver says.

"'Guess you didn’t have _Facebook_ on that island." Felicity quipped.

"Nope." Mr. Diggle says. "Not even a _MySpace_ account." He adds in a very eerie voice. "It was a very dark time.

She notices the look Oliver throws Diggle's way.

There's something different, Felicity notices, about the air between Oliver and Diggle. It's like there's some cloak been lifted and Mr.Diggle seems more open and unreserved.

"Well, there's not much here that's recent." She says as she runs her special search alogrithms on him. "No credit activity. No utility bills..." Derek Reston's ID card pops up. "I guess, you guys must have met at the factory."

Oliver still has a glimpse of the smile on his face while he is observing hers; he frowns suddenly when she comments on the factory. He shakes his head and leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Wait, what - what factory?" He says, sounding serious.

(Felicity thinks about the morning and wonders if what Barry says about leaning in is really true.)

"The - " Felicity pops her glasses back up her nose, tilting her head forward, trying to explain what she assumed was common knowledge. " - Queen steel factory. Derek Reston worked there for fifteen years, until it shut down in oh-seven."

The look on Oliver's face speaks volumes of his ignorance - and he looked, disturbed.

"Derek Reston, worked for my father?" He says, is a cold emotionless voice.

Those intense eyes of his are on her face - but it's not the same as when he's looking at her for her. Right now, his eyes are narrowed, focussed on the information. It's like he's taking in what she's saying and dissecting it out in his head.

Alarms go off in Felicity's brain as she tries to process it, too. Oliver Queen the spoilt, wealthy, scion to the Queen Empire friends with a blue-collar worker? No way in hell he was friends with this Reston guy!

Felicity twitches her eyebrows. "You weren't really close friends, huh?" She teases.

His eyes do not budge.

There is a sore spot somewhere. Felicity realizes, and trying to make light of the situation isn't the way to go.

"Looks like Derek was the factory foreman until your Dad outsourced production to China." Felicity says, straightening her face, glancing through Reston's employee records. "About fifteen hundred employees got laid off. Looks like the..." Felicity scans the financials and then something jogs her memory as she goes through Reston's termination contract. "The finance guys found a loophole in the union contracts, so they didn't have to pay severance packages and pensions to their employees." She looks up at Oliver's face - seeing his expression darken.

"They all pretty much lost their homes." Felicity says, looking between Diggle's sombre expression and Oliver's face. His lower lip seems tethered down and his jaw twitches.

Clearly, it wasn't something he wanted to hear. Felicity's intimidated by that dead serious look on his face.

"Including your _friend._ " Felicity adds.

Oliver blinks, looking at her. He exchanges a look with Diggle, and both men share some sort of unspoken conversation. Oliver gives her a curt, grateful nod, rises up and stalks out. 

At least, Diggle bothers with a verbal goodbye.

Later, when she hears about Derek Reston's death on the news - she wonders if it is a coincidence that Oliver wanted information on him.


	3. Is there such madness, as what I feel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realize Felicity might come off as a little more confident and mature - but I guess it's because she's already a CEO. I hope y'all don't mind. 
> 
> For BookOfLife who took time to write such a review that it inspired this to come tumbling out ;)
> 
> And all of you for your lovely comments.

Felicity's week can be described, for lack of better terms, as: 'A series of unfortunate events and other strange happenings'.

It may have  started with Brooding Oliver and what she would call: The Revelation (that she, and every other woman, apparently, was in love with Tommy) and indeed, Barry inadvertently named The Revelation very aptly as: _Everybody loves Tommy._

In the aftermath of the _Everybody loves Tommy_ revelation, Felicity remains occupied with a few things that gave her a much needed distance from Tommy but strangely - not, Oliver.

Her mental alarms had already been tipped off while she was reviewing the IP addresses of all systems logged into her server, and upon thorough scrutinizing further she discovers that someone had _hacked_ into her servers, just minutes before the fire.

If there is ever a time for her pride to be injured, Felicity decides - this would be it.

"The firewall was breached!" She bellows out at Cisco (who has been camping out in her living room for the past few days) as soon as she reaches home and flings her tablet at him.

" _My_ firewall!" She repeats.

"For the record." Cisco says, as he reviews the data. "Using your loud-voice isn't going to make this any better."

She shrugs off her coat and begins to pace up and down in her living room.

The ensuing discussion of 'can it be / why can't it be / who would do such a thing' which spans a frantic conversation between her and Cisco, then a more frantic phone conversation with Barry and then finally a full-blown heated teleconference with their legal and network guys that goes well into the night and ends with Barry whining over the trip he _has_ to make to Starling _again,_ at the same time that their legal advisor Mike tells her that he'll be coming over straightaway.

She's pacing round in circles in her living room as Cisco runs backtraces all over the internet because she's just too agitated to do anything, except waiting for Mike.

"You need to get out those skyscraper heels," Cisco complains just as the doorbell rings. "I'm getting vertigo just listening to that clicketty-click."

Felicity rolls her eyes at him and rushes to the door expecting to see Mike but instead she finds Oliver standing there, leaning against her half of the front-porch.

He looks - exhausted.

"Oliver!" She says, surprised, and peeks around expecting to see Mr. Diggle - who isn't there. She sees a massive superbike in her driveway, though.

"I'm uh - I tried to call." He says, glancing over her work-clothes. "Your phone was continuously busy."

"Yeah - um - " She shakes her head, keeping her hand over the edge of the door, noticing that he's standing at an angle. "Stuff - happening."

"Is that Mike?" She hears Cisco yell from her living room.

"No!" She shouts back.

"Is that pizza?"

"Why would it be pizza?" Felicity turns her head in Cisco's direction, forgetting about Oliver.

"I dunno -" He yells back. "Maybe I thought since you're 'Best boss to work for in Starling' and you'd actually take pity on the fact that you've made me _starve_ for the last five hours while I sort through this clusterfuck!"

"Cisco - !" She starts to say.

"If it's not Mike, who's calling on you at this godawful hour?" Cisco bellows back.

"Felicity?" Oliver's voice is so soft, that if she weren't standing right there she would neither have heard him nor detect the tension in his voice.

"Sorry, Oliver! It's -" She sighs, jerking her head between her living room and him. "What- what are you doing here?"

"I realize this is a bad time." He says, adjusting his weight on his legs. "But it's - I need your help. It's urgent."

The dark circles around his eyes make his face look so sullen that Felicity doesn't have trouble believing him.

"Okay." She opens the door wider. "Come on in."

"I er - I can't...I -"

"Oliver?"

"It's Thea." He says, sighing heavily. "I can't find her. She's been missing. Her phone's off. I've been tearing the city apart, searching for her and Tommy says that you know how to trace her when she - when she disappears like this." He exhales deeply. "Apparently - it's happened before."

Multiple times. Felicity doesn't say it. She's been around for the sleuthing half of it, for Tommy's sake. Laurel generally took over the nurturing, disapproving big sister roles while Tommy covered for her with Mr. Steele and Mrs. Queen. 

"Seriously, Felicity!" They hears Cisco shout again. "Who is it?"

She motions for Oliver to come in and the minute he takes a step forward she realizes he's limping.

"Oh my god, are you hurt?" She exclaims, reaching her hand out towards him.

"No, I'm fine - just a little bike accident." He grimaces.

That sounds like a lie. But she doesn't bother too much about it. He leans against the wall of the hallway as he stumbles in.

"And you're still driving around on that thing?" She hisses, and without thinking she just slips her arm underneath his. Oliver jerks away from her instantly as her side comes in contact with his.

There's something primal in the way his icy blue eyes are staring into her. It's like - there's and instinctual wariness.

"Sorry." She mumbles, looking away. "Force of habit, I guess. Tommy likes to crash here when he's had one too many. And um - you know how he is. Can't walk straight for..." She breaks off when she meets his eyes.

"I'm didn't mean to - " He says, blinking. "I - I just - force of habit for me, too, I guess."  

She doesn't understand that, but she doesn't pry.

"Tell you what." She says. "Let - let me come with you."

"No, Felicity!" He says, breathing heavily. And, Felicity knows he's breathing like that  because he's clearly in a lot of pain and for some reason, he doesn't want to show her the half of it.

(Like - _Men! Hmph!_ )

"It seems like you have stuff going on." He continues.

"Tell me about it." She mutters.

"I - I didn't want to disturb you but..."

"It's Thea." She says, nodding.

Oliver gives her a very raw, very emotional look that she can't really describe if she were asked to.

"Let me help you, Oliver." She whispers. "Okay? I'll just get my coat and my tablet. We'll find her."

She doesn't wait for him to protest. She rushes inside and grabs her tablet from Cisco who lets it go with a "Hey!"

Felicity hits the button to backup Cisco's data on their private cloud. Cisco swings from side to side trying to look around her at Oliver, whom - she notices, prefers to stay in the shadows of the dimly lit vestibule.

She understand why he'd be anti-social at the moment but Oliver's so big he pretty much looks like a massive bear lurking in the shadows.

"Use your own company sponsored handheld device." She orders Cisco. He frowns and keeps peering towards Oliver and looking at her quizzically. She ignores the unspoken questions and instead, fires off a set of instructions about what to do once Mike pops up.

"Did you get all that?"

"Wha - " Cisco stutters. "You're going somewhere?"

"Wh- what are you doing?" He says, looking frantically towards Oliver's silhouette.

"Multitasking." She mumbles while she opens up her tracking software.

"Wh- where are you going?" He yells after her. "It's like one a.m.!"

Oliver's already limped out towards her front porch by the time she's made it to the door.

"Don't leave me here to deal with Mike -" Cisco cries out. "He says all this legal stuff I don't get and it sounds like Greek - I don't do Greek."

"Funny." Felicity gives him a snarky smile, looking back at him as she fetches her keys. "He says the same about you when you talk nerd."

"Ugh!" He whines.

She smiles affectionately, when she hears Cisco complain loudly while she's closing the door.  "You don't pay me enough, Felicity!"

She's still got a small smile on her face when she turns to face Oliver. It fades when she recalls how serious this whole thing is.

"Nooo!" She declares when he turns towards his motorcycle."Uh-uh!" She shakes her head. "Nope! We're not going on that death machine." She jangles the keys to her little car. "I don't care if we have to cut your legs to fit you in but - we're doing this in my mini-cooper."

It's dark, and everything about this feels so stresfful, but she could swear she can see a smile playing on his mouth.

 

*

 

"Dammit!" He grunts. "We might actually have to cut my legs off to fit into this."

Felicity rolls her eyes as he struggles with her passenger seat, ignoring the creaking sounds of the trolley-mechanism as he roughly adjusts it. He huffs once he's done and then looks at her expectantly.

"Seatbelt?" She says, with a wide smirk.

"Seriously!" He says, shaking his head as he rattles the seatbelt around to fit over his large frame. "The CEO of SmoakScreen Cyber can't get a bigger car?"

"You don't get to comment on Larry, mister." She says, starting up the car and reversing out the driveway.  She tosses the tablet in his lap.

"You named your car Larry?" He sounds shocked.

"Yeah - doesn't it look like a Larry?" She mumbles as she drives forward.

He mutters something under breath - and it - is that Chinese?

"So," She says. "You see that blue dot there?" She nods her head towards the tablet. "That's her."

"I tried to track her phone." He says, with a hollow voice. "It's online."

"Back in the day when smartphones weren't that smart, I sort of developed this teensy weensy tracker that works on a separate power supply." She winces. "I _may_ have sneaked it into Thea's phone. And I may sneak it in anytime she gets a new one. It allows me to ping the phone even when it's turned off."

She glances at him and winks. "If you tell her, I'll deny it."

She glances at back at him when he says nothing. He's looking at her with a deadpan expression.

"You've done this before." He says.

"Far too many times." She mutters, rolling her eyes.

"Felicity." He breathes her name. Felicity feels this tremble wash over her.

"Look," She says, shaking that feeling off. "Thea's got a few pet hangouts...some in the Glades...some on the upper east side in downtown...she's a rebel but at least, she's predictable."

"Her drug dealers, you mean." He whispers loudly.

"Oh, you know." Felicity shrugs. "Yeah - I try not to judge. She took your death pretty hard, according to Tommy."

There's a sharp intake of breath from his part.

She glances at him and winces. "Was that inappropriate to say?" She sighs. "I'm sorry! Gorgeous Laurel's really good at dealing with her." Felicity rambles. "I can't do the whole lecturing thing because y'know - I don't really have that much shared history, and then I don't really think it's my place. Any way she really looks up to Gorgeous Laurel - so - we should call Laurel. She generally knows what to say to Thea. I'm not saying you wouldn't know how to deal with her - but Thea's just - well she's Thea."

"If it's not your place then why do you do it?" He says. His voice is devoid of emotion.

"I do it for Tommy. He cares for her."

"And whatever Tommy cares about..." She can hear the tone of voice harden. She doesn't glance at him because she's not sure if she wants to. "You care about."

"That's how friendship works." She retorts.

"Is it?"

"Isn't it?" She shoots him an angry glance, before taking a turn.

For a small silence, all she hears is his deep breathing.

"Look," Felicity snaps. "I can totally just stop this car and kick your ass out on the road with _suggestions_ as to where that blue spot might be moving. But - I care about Thea, too - not just because of Tommy, but because she's a good kid and she's a lot stronger than you boys give her credit for. So...I'm doing this one favor for you." When she glances at him, he's looking at her with that soul-piercing gaze. "But..." She says, defiantly. "If you _ever_ , and I mean _ever_ , try to make a thing out of my friendship with Tommy like you just did, it will be the _last_ one. Do you understand me? "

"Define 'make a thing'."

"I don't know!" She snaps. "You just - you keep making these _statements_ , and do that thing with your teeth."

"My teeth?" He echoes.

"Yeah - like it's _any_ of your business about what sort of friendship Tommy and I have." She's aware that her voice is getting louder and bossier.

But - she's tired, and someone hacked her firewall and she's just trying to do the right thing and if Oliver Queen wants to be such a dick about it, he's going to get her loud voice in return.

There's a pregnant silence  in the car as she parks outside a seedy little club in the Glades.

"I'm sorry." He says, when she snatches the tablet from his hand.

"I'm guessing you don't say that a lot." She mutters.

"Felicity."

Why does he say her name like that? Why does it have such an effect on her.

"Thea's in there." She says, getting out of the car.

She hears a groan when Oliver hops out of the cramped space of her car. She feels a twinge of pity watching him wince as he limps around the car to her side.

"Stay here." He orders her. When Felicity narrows her eyes at him, he softens his expression. "I mean - it doesn't look like a safe place." He adds.

Felicity agrees and stays back. And - she's aware that she looks like money, wearing her business dress and pumps out here in this shady little area, and the last thing she wants is to get mugged.

She grabs her bluetooth headset intending to call Cisco - because she does have a business to run. But, she's also hacking into the wireless LAN of the club and tries to get into the CCTVs because she's worried sick about... _everything._

She doesn't know why it didn't occur to her to ask him to call the police first.

She doesn't know why she is not surprised when she sees Oliver wrestle his way through the bouncers and just saunters into the club like he owns it.

Felicity finds Thea's face after scanning the feeds, well before Oliver actually does find her. She calls him quickly, and is relieved when he picks the phone of the first ring, because from what she can see from the grainy feeds in the club - it looks like a hell of a noisy party.

"Some guy's taking her upstairs." She says as soon as she hears his voice. "Hurry. She doesn't look sober."

_"How'd you...?"_

"Does it matter? I am not saying that I hacked into their CCTV feeds but - if I did - I may have seen her, okay?"

 _"I thought you might have followed me in."_ He says. On her tablet, in the small panel in which she spots him, she sees him moving his head around like he's looking for her.

"Like I'm that stupid." She mutters, adjusting the headset. "Oliver, Lana Madison is in there, too." She adds.

_"As in Madison Beauty?"_

"The younger one." She says. "Thea's supposed best friend but honestly, she has the worst influence on her. Gorgeous Laurel's words. Not mine."

Oliver finds a camera and looks up at it - at her. Felicity's completely thrown off by the small smile she sees on his lips.

 _"I'm on it."_ He says, looking intently into the camera. And then he disappears into the crowd, away from all available views and Felicity waits nervously, hearing the rough noises from the clubs music and people shouting in her ear since Oliver keeps the line open.

The line disconnects automatically, which she isn't too bothered about because it was bound to happen. She takes a call from Mike while she's waiting, listening to him ramble in her ear about how he's drawn up the papers and she needs to sign and how he thinks Mr. Ramon really needs a haircut and lesson in manners, while her heart pounds in her chest out of fear for the safety of the Queen siblings.

"Oh thank god!" She exclaims when she sees Oliver emerging from the side-alley way with two inebriated teenagers on either arm.

Thea's actually fighting him.

Felicity doesn't wait. She runs across the street and grabs hold of Lana who pushes away from Oliver to double over, spewing vomit.

"Get away from me!" Thea's roaring at Oliver. "You don't own my life! You're not Dad!"

She ignores the furious shouting match between Oliver and his completely wasted sister as she helps the younger Madison girl.

"Hey!" Lana groans, once Felicity has her standing up straight. "Thea! It's your friend! Fix-it Felicity!"

God help the privileged _enfant terribles_ and god help her for having to deal with them.

"Felicity! You tell him!" Thea's screeching. "You tell him he has no right!"

"My sister says that you dress like one of the Japanese cartoon whores!" Lana says and bursts into a series of cackles that doesn't become a human being, let alone a spoilt rich socialite wannabe.

"Watch it!" Oliver growls at Lana. Felicity gives him an exasperated look, trying to tell him there's no point in reprimanding reprobate rich kids.

"My sister says, your Tommy's little bitch!" Lana says, in a mocking voice. "You do anything and everything for him."

"Yeah well, tell you can tell Ashley that I'm not the one who's name matches a pimp site for cheaters!" Felicity retorts. 

"Huh?"

Felicity shakes her head, giving Oliver a comical expression, but he doesn't smile as she expected him to. Either he doesn't know anything about _Ashley Madison_ ( - the website, not, the daughter of the cosmetic moghul and ex-girlfriend of Tommy Merlyn, who actually coined the name 'Fix-it Felicity' to spite her because she resented Felicity's friendship with Tommy) or he didn't find it funny.

In fact, she's pretty sure that stern stare he's giving Lana Madison is his disapproval face.

(He also looks kinda hot when he does that.

 _Oh man!_ what an idiot Felicity is!)

"You skank!" Lana growls and swings to hit her.

"Oh my god." Felicity just steps back watching Lana swing in the air. "Are you kidding me with this?"

"You'll never be one of us!" Lana spits.

"Because that's the sole purpose of my existence." Felicity retorts, the irony dripping from her voice. "Now come on!" She grabs her arm and forces her to stand straight.

"No!" Thea starts shouting when Oliver tries to manoeuvre her. "No! I am not coming home! You have no right!"

"Oh! For crying out loud!" Felicity growls, wondering why she's bothering to even speak to a girl who is completely out of her senses. "Of course he has a right, Thea!"

"Yeah! Well! he _was gone_!" Thea suddenly starts to wail. "He didn't come back for five years! He should have stayed on that Island! He just left me alone! He doesn't have the right to come back and judge me!"

Thea stumbles back and looks like she's going to faint but her brother reaches out and catches her.

Felicity's heart breaks when she sees the look on Oliver's face. It doesn't help to see him wincing from the pain of whatever injury he has when he balances his sister's deadweight.

"Oooh! This is so dramatic!" Lana coos.

She shrinks back under the combined glare that Oliver and Felicity give her.

 

*

 

"Thank you." He says to her, as they drive to the hospital.

"Let's not do that again?" Felicity whispers, jokingly, as she eyes both girls in the back of her car.

Lana's scowling out the tiny window on one side while Thea's passed out for the major length of her backseat, with her legs sticking up on the roof because - lets-face-it Felicity's car is small.

He nods his head with a relieved sigh.

Tommy calls to say that him and Laurel will meet them at the hospital. Felicity feels a little stab of jealousy at the thought of seeing them together but she needs to get used to it, she tells herself.

"This is not a car, Fix-it Felicity!" Lana grumbles.

"Call me that, one more time." Felicity mutters.

"It's like those -" Lana whines. "Things you see in poor countries. What do they call it? A rickshaw?"

Felicity can see Oliver's reflection in the side-view mirror, when she glances there and he's scowling.

"Yeah...missy?" Felicity says, narrowing her eyes at Lana in the rear view mirror. "You can call it whatever you want, but if you dare throw up, I'll make you clean it up."

"Ew! No!" Lana makes a face. "I'd get Sosa to do it."

"Sosa sounds like a hardworking woman who shouldn't have to put up with your crap." Felicity says. "And I'll tell the judge that at your trial when you get arrested for underage drinking which I promise you - I will report - if you throw up."

She can see Oliver's face soften as he turns his head towards her.

"Drunk teenagers, huh?" She jokes, softly. Because she needs to. Because it's all been very intense. "I'll bet you didn't have those on the island."

Felicity bites her tongue when she realizes what she said. She winces at him. _Oh dammit! Is it weird to make jokes about his time away?_

He has a deadpan expression and his voice is serious when he remarks. "I'd rather take on the Triad than deal with that."

"Huh?"

He shakes his head and snorts. "Nothing," he says.

Felicity gets the idea that he was attempting to joke, even though, she doesn't get the punchline.

He widens his eyes at her meaningfully, jerking his head back at the two girls and then completely surprises her by giving her this adorable smirk.

Felicity snaps her head forward because she really would have crashed the car if she kept staring.

 

 

*

 

They want to keep Thea overnight, so Tommy and Laurel drive a sleepy _and_ snipy Lana home. Oliver chooses to drive Felicity back to her place.

"You want to drive Larry?" Felicity says, blinking at him through her bleary eyes.

"You look exhausted."

"I'm okay, Oliver."

"I left my bike there." He says with an encouraging smile.

She yawns - and realizes she's too tired to protest. Someone's trying to hack into her company, there was all that drunken and drugged-teenager-rescue, she hasn't really slept for a while and she has a full-schedule lined up for the next day which - technically is today.

She dozes off intermittently, leaning against the window - jolting awake every time Oliver switches the dodgy gears and curses; she reckons, he's not used to driving small cars with old clutch plates.

Her eyes are super droopy by the time he pulls up in her driveway.

"What the fuck is holding _Larry_ together?" He mutters. "Magic?"

Felicity yawns as she unbuckles her seat belt. She's so, so tired, she can't bring herself to move her legs.

"Thank you for being a dick about my car, Mr. Queen." She mumbles.

"Seriously, though Felicity." He says. "You don't live like someone who earns more than fifteen million a year."

"Larry's seen me through some tough times." She says, stretching out. "I guess I'm not ready to give up on him yet."

He's looking at her with this pouty-confused face that she really likes, enough to smile back at him. She flops her head to the side, facing him, trying to blink the sleep away.

"I know what you think of me." She mumbles.

"Do you?" He says.

She hears a small rumbling sound. She widens her eyes. Did he just laugh?

Also. He has this endearing grin that does wonders for his face.

"Yeah." She yawns. "You think I'm insane."

He cocks his head at her.

"I run the fastest growing billion-dollar company this side of the country." She says. "But, I don't live on a fancy street, with fancy cars and don't party in the fancy clubs. According to a clueless heiress of a lipstick company whose name matches with an online hook-up website, I dress up like a Japanese cartoon. And, I _am_ Tommy Merlyn's Fix-it girl. But!" She sighs. "If I cared about what people think, I'd be a cocktail waitress in Vegas."

"You were a cocktail waitress in Vegas?" He says, his voice is like this low -low growl.

"Another story for another time." She sighs, realizing she's basically been babbling on.

"I don't think you're insane, Felicity." He says.

Felicity notes that he's shifted down in the seat, that he's turned his face to the side to match hers, that his eyes are at level with hers.

"No?" She says and smiles, because she's so tired, she doesn't have it in her to be as serious as he is. "What do you think then?"

His face is suddenly close - a lot closer than it was a few seconds ago. Felicity wonders if she's dreaming, or if the beautiful hues of his irises are really that discernible that she can make them out. Felicity sucks her breath, watching mesmerized as he tilts his head. Her mouth opens just a little. He cuts off the space between them, capturing her upper lip in his mouth. Her chest expands as she breathes in and she feels like she's floating.  

His breath tickles her mouth when he whispers against her lips, "I think you're adorable."


	4. Whispered to me, And I shiver inside

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the feedback. I get the feeling that a whole lot of y'all found Tommy too selfish, but he's a sweetheart.

She knows it's seven a.m. when her alarm rings, pointlessly.

Alarms are for waking people up - and Felicity never slept. She's just sitting up in her bed staring at the wall.

There was a faint light illuminating his face. Maybe it was ambient light from her porch or the street. Maybe it was cosmic airglow or diffused sunlight from the other half of the world that's asleep.

Maybe it was nothing.

But, it was enough to see a brief glimpse of longing on his face. His eyebrows were drawn together - like he wanted something but was too afraid to ask.

So much emotion in the small space of her car.

And then it was gone.

He stiffened and drew back. That mysterious wall of zero-emotion was up and Felicity was cut off.

"I uh..." He said, in an emotionless tone of voice. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that."

Felicity's memory is pretty fudgy after that.

She's sitting in her bed staring at the wall on which there is a mirror in which she can see her reflection. She looks like a humanoid drone plugged into a charging port staring blankly into space. She's in her nightclothes so she's pretty sure she opened her front door, walked in, changed and ended up in the bed voluntarily, she just - can't remember any of it.

Was that a kiss?

Just softly sucking on her upper lip for just that brief while, the subtle brush of his lips over her mouth -

Can an action so simple, be so arousing? Can it really incite the energy that's buzzing through her body now? Is that supposed to feel more arousing than all the most passionate full-blown tongu-ey smooches she's ever experienced?

She doesn't know what she's _supposed_ to feel. Is it supposed to keep her wide awake?

The door to her bedroom opens suddenly and she yelps.

"Gaah!" Cisco says when her yelp dwindles to a squeal. "It's me! Chill!"

"Wh- what?" She snaps.

"Did you sleep at all?" He gives her weird-face. Then straightens up with a sigh. "I might have made a breakthrough on the hack."

Cisco was basically living on her couch, right? Was he awake when she got in? Did she speak to him?

She can't remember.

"Seriously, Felicity, you look zonked. Let me get you some coffee."

She's blinking idiotically.

"And for crying out loud!" He drawls, pointing to her incessantly beeping alarm. "Turn that goddamn thing off!"

 

*

(He didn't _mean_ to kiss her?)

"Wow!" Tommy says to her, when he sees  her that afternoon for lunch. "You didn't get any sleep at all."

(One of the plus sides of renting out office space in Merlyn Global was the proximity to Tommy. It makes things convenient for their friendship - like meeting up for lunch in the middle of busy work day or hanging out at Merlyn Global's swanky coffee lounge...

...or hide in each other's offices when they don't want to deal with people.

Tommy's not an uncommon sight around her workplace. The rumour is that he spends more time in her office that his own when he comes over.  Most of the times, when he's forced to come in for board meetings, just to (and she's quoting Tommy here -) 'show his face', he'll come by her office and slump on her sofa, watching sports on her otherwise unused TV, staying quiet while she works.

And it isn't to disturb her or distract her.  Felicity never found him intrusive. On the contrary his happy demeanour and quiet presence helps on the more stressful days. If ever confidentiality or privacy is required, he somehow picks up the need to exit, before she even has to ask. On the superiorly stressful days, when Felicity craves isolation from pestering peers and demanding deadlines, he coaxes her to work out of his office, that's two floors above, just so she can have some space. 

Tommy is brilliantly intuitive - it's what makes him such a good friend.

And. Felicity hopes that Laurel knows how lucky she is.)

"Ugh!" She groans, putting her feet up on her desk. "Work disasters, you know?"

"I wouldn't." He sighs. "I've never worked a day in my life."

"Huh." She comments. "That's true." She smiles and winks at him. "At least, you're honest about it."

"So hey..." He says, as he drags the chair opposite her desk all the way around so he can sit at the same side as her. "Thanks for being so awesome...last night. "

_Last night...this morning. When Oliver didn't mean to kiss her._

 "That's what friends are for." She says, ignoring the flutter inside her stomach thinking about Oliver. She clears all the stuff from her desk so they can share the take-out.

Tommy shakes the computer mouse, waking up the system.  "So what are we gonna watch today?" He mumbles.

(She almost half-expects him to do that. Whenever he senses how stressed out she is, he makes her watch some ridiculous _YouTube_ videos that crack her up. It's his way of getting her to relax without making it a big deal. Felicity wonders when they started this routine.)

"So...." He says, handing her a box. "We're doing Malaysian today." He places a smaller round sauce container at a distance from her. "Stay away from that satay sauce." He ordered, casually.

(Stay away from that- _(particular food item)_ \- is Tommy-speak for allergy warning. It's his way of saying: "May contain nuts" like they did on chocolate wrappers.)

Felicity resists the urge to coo at his sweetness.

She taps on the play button on what appears to be a feminist comedy routine - her favourite genre. (He might fool every one with his a philandering pig routine, but Felicity knows that Tommy is the most considerate person. He watches feminist comedy - just for her.)

She asks the question even though she doesn't want to. "So...what's going on with you and Gorgeous Laurel?" Felicity says, feeling her eyes stinging from the exhaustion (and the apprehension she feels whenever she thinks of Tommy with Gorgeous Laurel). "Are you two officially a couple yet?"

"I dunno -" Tommy sighs. He looks forlorn.

"You should ask her out." Felicity says, surprising herself.

"I'm sort of planning this fundraiser."

"Yeah, I know you're trying to impress her but I mean - like seriously - a date."

 _Way to go Felcity. Stab a knife in your own heart. That makes sense._ A peal of laughter echoes from her computer speakers like some proverbial 'audience applause' track on her life.

"We sort of hangout..." He says, drolly.

"And sleep together?" Felicity says, shoving away the small pinch she feels into the back of her mind. "But that's not what I mean. I mean, a proper date - with y'know? 'Take her out to dinner', be your lovable charming self, buy her flowers, kiss her, politely and then ask for a second date."

"You think I'm lovable and charming!" He teases.

"Yeah, I don't really keep you around for your good looks." She says, in a secretive tone.

"I don't think I've ever had a date which didn't end up with me sleeping with a girl since I was sixteen." Tommy mumbles.

"Well, Gorgeous Laurel deserves to be wooed." Felicity says, nodding assertively.

Tommy nods in agreement.

"Tommy. If you want her, you'll have to fight for her." She says, without thinking.

 _Whoops!_ Should she have said that?

Tommy looks at her, with surprise. "Fight whom?' He says.

Felicity doesn't know how to answer that. She thinks of Oliver Queen and his impossibly seductive mouth.

"Erm..." She squeaks.

"Smoak?"

"Y'know - it's just a matter of speaking. You have to sort of pull your socks up. Be the guy, she'd like to date." She says, not meeting his eyes.

He stays silent. When Felicity finally musters the courage to look at him, he's studying her with a half-amused, pensive expression. Like he knows who she means, and he's trying to corner her into telling the truth.

Felicity holds her ground. Surprising herself yet again, because she normally babbles when she gets nervous. (Brain -one, babble-mouth - zero! Alright! )

"You know, Smoak..." He says, narrowing his eyes at her playfully. "You and I need to hangout more."

"We hangout all the time."

"Yeah, not enough, lately." He winks at her and starts playing the video. "So...movie night? You and me?" Tommy says. "Is that still on...you've been having a crazy week?"

"We don't do movie night anymore." She says, frowning at him.

"Correction." Tommy says. "We haven't done movie night in a while because I've not been very efficient at my job as your BFF. You up for it?"

Felicity decides that she is.

 

 

*

 

By the end of the week of the series of unfortunate events and strange happenings, she gets a very odd personal request from Walter Steele to meet her personally.

She's never actually met Mr. Steele before. Her sales manager negotiated the contract with his sales manager at QC and whatever little bit she'd heard about the suave Mr. Steele, she was intimidated by him. The word around the market was, whenever Mr. Steele met a business associate, personally, it usually meant termination of the services they provided to QC.

 _"A man of honour, he believes his stabbing the adversary in the front."_ He was described in one of the lifestyle magazines.

Ergo.

An already antsy Felicity, with several days of sleep deprivation and several hours of over-thinking ends up storming into their late-evening meeting starting off with a tirade about how letting go of SmoakScreen Cyber Security will be a complete error of judgement and how their services are unbeatable to protect Queen Consolidated's electronic security and a lot of yadda yadda that she doesn't intend on saying but says any way.

No greetings, no polite chit-chat. Felicity just waltzes into the office, stands there and just _rants._ (Idiot!).

And, she just goes on and _on_ , while Mr. Steele just keeps staring at her with growing annoyance on his face.

"It would be a bad decision to fire us." Felicity concludes with a huff.

"Won't you sit?"

"No."

He shakes his at her and sighs. "I agree." He says. "Which is why you're not being fired."

"We're not?" She's flummoxed. "I assumed...because you - you called me out here..." She gives him a sheepish smile and makes that godawful stupid gestures of rubbing her throat against her neck with her tongue out to indicate termination.

"You did not!" Tommy guffaws later when she tells him of her unfortunate behaviour, when she meets him later for movie night. "You _actually_ did the slit-throat thing in front of Walter. So much for the dignified CEO of a billion tech dollar company!"

Felicity groans and hides her face in her palms.

"So what did he want anyway?" Tommy asked.

"A personal favour..." Felicity whines. She snaps her head up. "Not the creepy kind...it's just personal."

(He wanted her to look into some missing money that Mrs. Queen authorized that they couldn't track down. He needed discretion. He offered to consider buying a license for their newest forensic accounting software, for QCs finance division in return.

"Nope..." Felicity, had blurted. "No I'll be happy to help."

Felicity was only happy to oblige given the disastrous behaviour she displayed.

Also, given that she may have declined his offer to buy her product, she began to seriously doubt her abilities as a business woman.

Because, apparently she's a colossal disaster who can't fix her obsession with someone she's resolved not to like. Because, her mind is stuck on replay with _that_ kiss.

Because she hasn't heard from him or seen him in a _week_ since - which when you decide to kiss someone who clearly had no intention to kiss in their tiny car, aren't you at least obliged to explain? Or at least say 'hi' just to make sure they're okay?)

"D'you wanna know what I said, instead of goodbye?" She whispers to Tommy with an embarrassed grin. "I told Walter Steele, I was his girl. "

Tommy bursts into fit of laughter and Felicity joins in laughing at herself.

(Also -

Mrs. Queen's throwing Gertrude vibes, Felicity thinks, after she hands Mr. Steele the information the mysterious company called Tempest.)

 

Felicity huddles against Tommy for warmth as they walk down the footpath, their shoulders rubbing against each other as they giggle. Felicity's body feels lighter echoing the relief in her mind after recovering the downtime due to the fire, finally getting over the inertia of their expansion plans, and bumping up their firewall security to in Cisco's words to: super-stealth grade impenetrability.

"You still look really tired." Tommy says, once their laughter subsides. "You were practically drooling on my shoulder!"

"I was not!" She protests. "I just dozed off, for a second there."

"Really? So tell me who the killer was? And I want details -  means, motive and opportunity, Smoak."

"Sure..." Felicity makes a mock-ponder face. "It was what'sherface with the what'sthatthing and she wanted the whatsit do the whateveritwas."

"Uh huh!" Tommy bubbles up with laughter, again. Felicity's grinning widely as she slips her arm around his elbow.

"So..." She says, wiping a small tear after they're done. "You and Gorgeous Laurel?"

A long protracted sigh escapes him and his face falls.

"Tommy...!" She drawls in a tender voice. "What is it?"

"I - I don't know what's holding her back."

Felicity does. A 'what' not 'who', who has the most impossibly magnetic blue eyes and the sexiest lips that have ever kissed Felicity Smoak. But, she isn't going to tell Tommy that because a) he knows and b) she'll have to think about Oliver kissing Gorgeous Laurel, the thought of which gives Felicity the creeps nowadays.

"Actually," He says, after a small silence. "I do know."

She feels sorry for him, when she watches his chin drop.

"It's always been him, for her." He says, and sighs longingly again.

Felicity doesn't know how to cheer him up. When he glances at her as they continue to walk. She gives him an encouraging smile. He shakes his head, straightens his face and winks back at her.

He's changing the subject.

She feels sad for him.

"Look, there's something I should probably tell you." He says.

"Okay?"

"The Oliver I knew from five years ago, was a lot like me - back then, I mean. He got a thrill in seducing the perfect little daddy's girl type and I was afraid that he might mistake you for one."

"Well I'm not a daddy's girl." Felicity rolls her eyes. "For sure."

"But you are...perfect."

Felicity's eyes snap up to his in surprise. He gives her a teasing smile. "And you're little." He adds, using his free hand to pat the crown of her head.

"And, I'll spam your computer with porcupine fart videos, if you say any more." She says, raising an eyebrow in mock warning.

He chuckles.

"If I'm so perfect, how come you never took advantage of me." She says, without thinking over the words. _Uh-oh!_ Felicity widens her eyes and looks, horrified, at Tommy.

Tommy doesn't seem take her statement to seriously, though. Thank god.

"Well, you do mean a lot to me." He says matter-of-factly, looking straight ahead. "C'mon! I had nobody!" He says, not looking at her. "You know what my Dad's like, right?" He sighs. "After Oliver and his Dad went missing - I didn't really have much family. Thea was just a baby. Laurel was grieving. I met you and it was like - well -" He sighs. "I felt like I was waking up from a nightmare and functioning, again. My new wingman."

When Felicity gives him a pointed look. He corrects himself. "Wing- _woman._ "

"I've changed...I guess." Tommy shrugs. "Laurel thinks you've made me better, in many ways, I mean."

"Well, I mean if Gorgeous Laurel says so..." Felicity remarked sarcastically, earning a small snort of laughter from Tommy.

"What I'm trying to say is that, it's just possessiveness."

"What is?"

"Me, the other day when I saw Ollie at your place, in the morning, I might have freaked out a bit."

"That was possessiveness?" Felicity frowns.

"I was worried that you might be tempted to have a fling with my other best friend and when it goes wrong and you might hate me because you hate him..." He meets her gaze. "I can't stand the thought of losing you. It'd be like Ollie's death all over again. "

Felicity cannot imagine a time or a universe where she could ever hate Tommy. Whatever the reason.

"I don't know." Felicity, says truthfully while mulling over his words in her head, "if I'm supposed to be flattered or offended."

"Don't be either." He says. "Just know that if I had to choose, I'll choose you."

"I still don't get why we're having this conversation." She says, feeling numb. "Is this your way of marking your friendship or something?"

He shoots her look of surprise, and then looks sheepish when he sees the way she's serious. "No! No! Thea, told me that Lana behaved very badly with you, that night."

"I'm surprised Thea remembers anything." Felicity commented. "But wait - why are _you_ apologizing?"

"Look, everyone calls you Fix-it-Felicity because of Ashley. And the only reason you ever came in contact with a clingy, jealous disaster like Ashley Madison was because I dated her for like - five minutes. And she started it because she was just..."

"Being a bitch?" Felicity prompted.

He grinned and relaxed.

"Tommy, do you think the opinions of the spoilt rich future reality TV disasters, matters to me?"

"I think that, you've had to put up with a lot of crap from people that you wouldn't have to bother with if you hadn't met me."

Felicity frowns and looks ahead at the pavement as they walk around the curb.

 "And..." He continues. "I think - that you need to know that I'm not completely insensitive to that."

"I can take care of myself, Tommy. This isn't high school y'know? You don't have to defend the nerd from the clique."

"You're a total kickass babe, Smoak..." Tommy says, looking at her seriously. "I don't doubt that it. Which is why I don't say anything when Ashley targets you, even if I want to...but..."

"But?"

"You should know, that. I don't want anyone to think you're some groupie female friend of mine, who'll drop everything and run to my aid just because I wish it."

Felicity studies him, unsure about what he's trying to say.  "Why are you telling me this?" She says.

"I can see that Ollie respects you." He says, looking at her seriously. "And I want it to stay that way."

"Wh- what?"

"And -" He looks a little embarassed when he speaks. "He might have told me that I've been treating you like a 'Fix-it Felicity' and that you deserve better."

Felicity blinks, nonplussed.

"Huh?" Comes out of her mouth.

 ( _Why would Oliver say that to Tommy?_ She wonders. It sounds like an admonishment for Tommy but it feels like it's directed at her.)

"I er..." Felicity says, hesitantly. "I kinda am."

"Yeah, well, if you are then, I am not gonna share." He says, with a great deal of fierceness, that has her surprised again.

"Wow." Felicity jokes, feeling her insides flutter with a mixture of amusement and fluffy feels. "Possessive much?"

"No - I didn't mean it that way. I'm just saying - you don't have to fix things for people in my life just because you know I care about them. Not at the expense of your time and work, anyway."

Felicity is taken aback by the ardour he shows.  Seeing the look on her face, his seriousness switches to a comical expression. "FYI." He says. "I'm not pissing a circle around you to mark you as mine."

(Felicity wouldn't mind that so much though.

Or maybe she will.

Gaah! When did she become so pathetic?)

"I'm worried about you." She says, suddenly. He doesn't look as surprised as she expected him to look. "I like Laurel, you know I do - and if what you say, about the hold Oliver has on her is true then...

He reaches free hand to pat the hold she has on his elbow and says, "You're afraid that I'm in too deep with Laurel and it's not mutual."

"I'm worried about your heart." Felicity says. "Not you're physical heart." She adds. "I mean the muscle that's constantly ticking..." She pats his chest. "Actually, I'm worried about that too. You need to lay off the fries. But, it's not an immediate concern, seeing as you are a young healthy, physically fit male with no family history of heart disease. But I'm worried about the other one. The one that beats for Gorgeous Laurel."

He's already smiling half-way through her ramble.

Felicity shakes her head and is a little relieved as her phone buzzes. She fetches it from her purse to see a text from Walter Steele requesting a meeting.

 

*

Mysterious woebegones at Queen Consolidated, Felicity thinks.

She hurries into the elevator, her mind muddled with mysteries. The mysterious Mrs. Queen-Steele's (does she hyphenate, indeed?)  mysterious enterprises, the mysterious notebook that Walter handed her and his tucked safely in her briefcase and her mysterious son...

...who (as if on cue - because that's of effed-up her life is) appears when the elevator dings and the doors open.

(He's alone - thank God. She isn't sure she can handle Mr. Diggle's knowing glances.) He freezes at the sight of her - his blue eyes, wide and mirroring the surprise she feels at seeing him. She's fixed to her spot, watching him in a mix of discomfort and shock as the elevator doors wheel to a close and it appears as though he's going to pass this ride, rather than get inside - except he wrenches his hand between the doors, just before the they close.

Felicity doesn't realize she's holding her breath until the elevator doors widen automatically and he steps in.

"Hi." He says, as he turns around to face the display panel.

"Hi." She squeaks, pressing her lips together and trying not to look at him.

Her heart quickens pace as the doors close and the elevator descends.

"What are you doing here, so late?" He asks, after a short but nevertheless painful silence that's interrupted when the elevator stops at the sixteenth floor. The doors open and close to no-one in particular, making her squirm at the prospect of continuing to be alone with him.

"Erm - I had a meeting with Mr. Steele." She answers. "QC is a client of ours."

"Oh." He nods, looking at her with what she can only describe as a fake-interest face. "Good to know."

"Yep."

That ground floor cannot come fast in enough in Felicity's opinion.

"So." He says, sounding perky-ish.

"So." She echoes.

Oliver reaches out and hits the elevator's emergency stop button.

"Woah-woah! Wh-what are you - ?" Felicity stutters as an alarm starts to blare in iterations.

He turns towards her, but doesn't come any closer.

"About...that night?" He says. "When Thea went missing?"

"You mean the one where you didn't mean to kiss me?" She finds herself saying.

_Dammit! That...so...shouldn't have come out of my mouth._

"Yeah - about that-" He says, glancing back as the elevator phone begins to ring.

"Oh, don't worry." Felicity says, bitterly. "I got the message. You didn't _mean_ to do it. I don't need explanations."

Now, he looks more surprised that he did when he first saw her in the elevator. She turns and faces the door, sighing expectantly.

The phone continues to ring. The alarm continues the blare. She can feel the heat of his gaze burning into the side of her face.

"Actually." She says, turning towards him. "I do need explanations. Who _does_ that? Is that a thing for you - just randomly kissing people you don't mean to? And then you basically just..." Her lips turn downwards in a wince. "... _ignore_ them?"

Without warning he reaches for the display. Felicity watches on in a mix of horror, surprise and confusion when he opens the panel jabs something over the keypad.

In an instant, with a soft whirring noise, the alarm goes silent and the elevator goes dark except for the red light.

"What are you doing?" Felicity hisses.

"Using my emergency access codes."

"To do what?" She says, angrily. "Do you even know what you're supposed to use them for? You've basically shut down the elevator!" She points up to the camera. "And the CCTV!"

He throws her an annoyed look, like she's stating the obvious.

"I just wanted that damn noise to stop." He says.

"Oh perfect!" She flings her free hand up in the air, before dropping it by her side. "That worked!" She says, ironically.

"Felicity..." There's hitch in his voice when he says her name. Like he's exasperated but apologetic at the same time. "I -I -  it - it was an accident."

He means the kiss. Not the fact that they're in a now alarm-less elevator thanks to his code-punching. It's all silence and darkness, except for the phone that's constantly ringing, with that awful red light that  -

(- well Felicity's got to be an idiot, doesn't she? If she thinks, he looks sexy under a red hue?

 _Wait a minute, did he just say -?_ )

"An accident?" She echoes. She looks at him with incredulity. He's meeting her eyes, but she can't gauge shit in this red light.

Her temper rises as does the tone of her voice. "Like what? You just _fell_ into my face?"

Oliver stares at her. She notices his breathing is more shallow, like he's seething.  His stare turns into a scowl.

"Dammit, Felicity!" He whispers and steps forward, advancing way, way into her personal space.

Again.

She steps back automatically in tandem with him until her back hits up against the wall of the elevator. Her mouth opens to challenge him about his lack of respect for her personal space.

And it stays that way, because his hand has already snaked at the back of her neck, his scruffy jaw is scraping against her chin and he's lining his lips against hers.

Felicity gasps.

The phone continues to ring in the background. Her eyelids flutter shut. Her briefcase drops to the floor with a loud thud.

A breathy moan escapes. She's not sure if it's her or him.

There's not a sliver of resistance on her part when his tongue enters her mouth.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. How did that happen?   
> I was totally intending to write something else by the end of this chapter.  
> Hmm.

**Author's Note:**

> Reviews are love, inspiration, motivation to do better and do more - but above all they're most most welcome in whatever shape or form.
> 
>  
> 
> I'm sorry it's been a year since I've updated. Real Life suddenly upped and bit me in the rear and it's been tough for me.  
> I'm very disappointed with how S4 has ended up and what s5 will potentially be. So i'm putting alll fics on hold till s5 is done.  
> I love Oliver and Felicity and I love the nuances of their relationship. I feel the show has lost that flavor.  
> I feel terrible about disappointing you guys, but I'm not giving up, it's just tough to stick to the characterizations because now I'm blocked.


End file.
